
Class _____ 
Book 



coenuG»r DEPosir. 



^'>^y 



AN ^^s'^ 



INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS; 

OB, 

EVIDENCE THAT HWUI SHAN 

AND 

A PARTY OF BUDDHIST MONKS FROM AFGHANISTAN 
IN THE FIFTH CENTURY, A. D. 



/ 



BY 

EDWARD P. VINING. 



" If Buddhist priests were really the first men who, -within the scope of written 
history and authentic annals, went from the Old World to the New, it will sooner or 
later be proved. Nothing can escape history that belongs to it."— Leland. 






\.^^^jUii-Qu 



NEW YORK: 
D. APPLETON" AND COMPANY, 

1, 3, AND 5 BOND STKEET. 
1885. 



y 



COPTEIGHT, 1S85, 

By EDWARD P. VINING. 



X/ 



TO 

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT, 

AS A TOKEN OF APPEECIATION 

OF 

THE CONSCIENTIOUS LABOUR BESTOWED UPON HIS 

"native races OF THE PACIFIC STATES," 

AND THE OTHER VOLUMES OF HIS 

HISTORIES OF THE PACIFIC STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, 

THIS WORK IS 

RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 



PREFACE 



That there are many who could have done much better 
than myself the work which I have undertaken to do, I am 
well aware ; but, as those who are more competent have failed 
to give to the Chinese records of a distant eastern land that 
careful study which they seem to me to demand, I have 
thought it best to publish the results of my own examination 
of the subject. 

It does not appear unjust to former writers upon the sub- 
ject to call attention to the fact that, with the noteworthy ex- 
ception of Mr. Leland, they have paid but little attention to 
the history or characteristics of the country lying in the direc- 
tion and at the distance from China indicated by the Chinese 
as the location of the lands to which they gave the names of 
"Fu-sang" and the "Country of Women"; and yet a care- 
ful examination of the descriptions of this region of the world 
given by other authorities, and their comparison with the de- 
tails of the Chinese account, and with the minutise of Asiatic 
civilization, are almost the only means by which the truth or 
falsity of the Chinese records can be established. The com- 
parisons of this nature, made from such data as I have been 
able to obtain, reveal so many peculiar coincidences and remove 
so many difficulties over which earlier investigators have stum- 
bled, that the hypothesis that the Chinese account was derived 
from a traveler who had visited Mexico is rendered almost 
infinitely more probable than any other conjecture that can 
be entertained upon the subject. It is true that some objec- 
tions still remain, but the few statements that it seems difficult 



vi PEEFACE. 

to explain are far oiitweiglied bj the evidence presented by 
the numerous details of the account which are proved to be 
true. The explanations suggested as to some doubtful points 
might seem more plausible if they were confined to that eluci- 
dation of the difficulty which, upon the whole, appears to be 
its most probable solution. I have preferred, however, to 
note all possible exj)lanations that have suggested themselves 
to me, believing that in some cases the truth which fm-ther 
investigation will reveal may possibly lie in some interpre- 
tation which now seems improbable. 

Errors will undoubtedly be found in this work, but I have 
hoped to excite sufficient interest in the question under ex- 
amination to induce more competent scholars to bring the 
truth to light regarding those points as to which I have 
failed. I am confident, however, that, after the elimination of 
all errors, it will be found that the great mass of evidence that 
is presented that America was discovered in the fifth century 
of the Christian era remains practically untouched ; and that 
as a whole the work will be much easier to ignore than to 
answer by those who may differ from its conclusions. 

All attempts to establish a truth which has not been gener- 
ally received are met by the difficulty that it is almost impos- 
sible to interest in the subject those who have formerly paid 
no attention to it, and that those who have studied it are 
strongly tempted by a natural regard for their own self-com- 
placency to deny that there is anything more in the subject 
than they have been able to perceive for themselves. I, there- 
fore, can not hope that my views will immediately meet with 
general acceptance; but that their truth will ultimately be 
recognized, I can not doubt. 

Some quotations have been made at second-hand, and from 
authorities which I would not have given if I had had easy 
access to a better library than my own ;- and some books which 
I desired to consult I have not been able to obtain. Due al- 
lowance should be made for these facts. 

It is proper that I should express my thanks for the kind 
responses which I have received to my applications for assist- 
ance and information from many to whom I was unknown, 



PREFACE. vii 

and who may have believed my convictions upon the subject 
under investigation to be but poorly founded. 

Among those to whom I am indebted may be named Mr. 
H. H. Bancroft and his assistants, Messrs. Henry L. Oak, John 
H. Gilmour, and John Donovan. Mr. Addison Van Name, 
Librarian of Yale College, Mr. George Bullen, Keeper of the 
Printed Books of the British Museum, and Mr. I. A. Leonard, 
of the Astor Library, have assisted me to obtain information 
from a few works not found in my own library. Mr. Kwong^ 
Ki Chiu, formerly Secretary of the Chinese Board of Educa- 
tion, Mr. Saum Song Bo, a graduate of the Chicago University, 
and Mr. John E. Vrooman, Translator of Chinese at the 
United States Custom-House of San Francisco, have explained 
doubtful passages in the Chinese text to me. They should 
not be held responsible, however, for any errors that may be 
thought to exist in my translation. Mr. Charles G. Leland, 
M. the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, and the late Pro- 
fessor S. Wells Williams gave me permission to quote from 
their works. 

Professors Spencer F. Baird, Asa Gray, William H. Brew- 
er, O. C. Marsh, and Edward D. Cope, the Rev. Joseph Ed- 
kins, the Eight Rev. Channing M. Williams, Dr. Felix L. 
Oswald, Dr. D. G. Brinton, Messrs. Edward L. Morse and J. 
H. Trumbull, the late W. R. Morley, Chief Engineer of the 
Sonora Railroad, Mr. W. H. Pratt, Secretary of the Daven- 
port Academy of Natural Sciences, Mr. A. Knoflach, formerly 
of San Francisco, Mr. W. W. Rhodes, formerly of the city of 
Mexico, and Messrs. Maisonneuve et Cie., of Paris, have all 
rendered me kind assistance, as have also the Hons. Lucius H. 
Foote, Minister to Corea, Percival Lowell, Secretary of the 
Corean Embassy, David H. Strother, Consul-General at the 
city of Mexico, Joseph D. Hoff, Consul at Coatzacoalcos, and 
John A. Sutter, Jr., Consul at Acapulco. 

To all, my thanks are due. 

Edwakd p. Yixestg. 

Chicago, III., U. S. A., March 3, 1885. 



ILLUSTRATIOIsra 



FIO. PAGE 

Map. Route followed by Hwui Shan .... Frontispiece 

1. An Image of Buddha 128 

2. Bas-relief found at Palenque 128 

3. Sculpture from Island of Cyprus 129 

4. Sculpture found at Uxmal 129 

5. Ornament above a Door at Ocosingo . . . . . . .130 

6. Aureola about Head of Idol 132 

7. Altar found at Palenque 133 

8. Seated Figure found at Uxmal 134 

9. Figure of Buddha at Ellora 135 

10. Two Plants described as "Trees" 383 

11. A Century-plant in Blossom 385 

12. The T'uno-tree and the Wild Mulberry 387 

13. Bamboo-sprouts 389 

14. Punishment of a Criminal by the Aztecs 465 

15. Mount Iztaccihuatl, ok "the White Woman" 507 

16. An Aztec Mirror 523 

17. An Image found in Campeachy 571 

18. Sculptured Tablet at Palenque 591 

19. Another Representation of Tablet at Palenque .... 592 

20. Bead-relief in Stucco at Palenque 593 

21. Detail of Facade of a Building at Uxmal 594 

22. A Mexican Image, said to represent Quetzalcoatl .... 595 

23. The Temple of Boro-Budor in Java 603 

24. The " Palace," or Temple, at Palenque 603 

25. The Elephant's-head Head-dress C07 

26. Drawing of an Elephant's Head 608 

27. Elephant-pipe found in a Field 609 

28. Elephant-pipe found in a Mound 609 

29. The "Elephant-mound" of Wisconsin 611 

30. BiTARA Gana, or Ganesa 612 

31. An Aztec God, said to be Teoyaomiqui 613 



00I^TEI!TTS. 



CHAPTER I, 

PAGE 

Inteoductoet ........ 1 

The birth of Buddha — His titles — His character — His religious belief — His 
universal charity — His life as a hermit — The discovery which he imag- 
ined that he had made — Desire that all should share its benefits — His 
command to evangelize the world — The compliance of his discipjlcs — 
The dispersion from India — Countries visited — Traces of the religion in 
Europe — Also throughout Asia — And in Alaska — The wanderings of 
Buddhist priests — Few records preserved — Ease of journey from Asia 
to America — The Gulf-Stream of the Pacific — Shipwrecks on the Kurile 
and Aleutian Islands — Records of journeys of Buddhist priests — Their 
reliability and value — A Chinese record of a visit to an Eastern country 
— Reasons for crediting the account — Object of this work — Previous dis- 
cussions of the subject — Plan of this work — The discovery made by de 
Guignes — Humboldt's views — Klaproth's dissent — The Chevalier de Par- 
avey's essays — Neumann's monograph — Leland's translation and com- 
ments — Articles by MM. Perez, Vivien de Saint-Martin, d'Eichthal, Bras- 
seur de Bourbourg, Godron, Jones, Brown, Simson, Bretschneider, Adam, 
d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, Lobscheid, Channing M. Williams, and S. 
Wells Williams. 

CHAPTER II. 

De Guignes's Discovery . . . . . .18 

Chinese voyages — Knowledge of foreign lands — Work of Li-jen. a Chinese 
historian — The country of Fu-sang — The length of the // — Wen-shin — 
Its identification with Jesso — Ta-han — Its identification with Kamtchatka 
— The route to Ta-han by land — The country of the Ko-li-han — The She- 
goei — The Yu-che — Description of Kamtchatka — The land of Lieu-kuci 
— The description of Fu-sang — No other knowledge of the country — The 
Pacific coast of North America — A Japanese map — The Kingdom of . 
Women — Its description — Shipwreck of a Chinese vessel — American 
traditions — Civilization of American tribes on the Pacific coast — The 
Mexicans — Horses — Cattle — The fu-sang tree — Mexican writing — Man- 
ner in which America was peopled — Similarity of customs in Asia and 
America — Resemblances in the people — Charlevoix's story — Natives 
floated upon cakes of ice — The kingdom of Chang-jin — Voyages of 
other nations — The Arabs — Exploration of the Atlantic — The Canaries 
— Story of their king — The Cape Verd Islands — Conclusion. 
B 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

PAGE 

Klapboth's Dissent . . . . . . .39 

Title of de Guignes's article incorrect — Translation of the account of Fti-sang 
— Vines and horses not found in America — Route to Japan — Length of 
the li — Identification of Wen-nhin with Jesso — Ta-haii identified with 
Taraikai or Saghalien — The route to Ta-han by land — The Shy-wei — 
Lieu-kuei — Fu-sang south of Ta-lian instead of cast — Fti-sang an ancient 
name of Japan — Analysis of name " Fu-sang " — The paper mulberry — 
Metals — The introduction of Buddhism — Fantastic tales. 



CHAPTER IV. 

De Paeavey's Suppoet . . . , . .49 

America visited by Scandinavians — American tribes emigrants from Asia — 
Ancient Chinese maps — Researches antedating those of Klaproth — Let- 
ter of P^re Gaubil — Ta-han — Lieu-kuei — Identification of these with 
Kamtchatka — Size of Fu-sang — Views of M. Dumont d'Urville — Length 
of the li — America lies at the distance and in the direction indicated — 
The Meropide of Elien — The Hyperboreans — The monuments of Guate- 
mala and Yucatan — The Shan-hai-king — Identification of the fu-sang 
tree with the metl or maguey — The Japanese Encyclopaedia says Japan 
is not Fu-sang — The banana or pisang tree may have been the tree called 
fu-sang — Grapes in America — Milk in America — The bisons of America 
— Llamas — Horses — Wooden cabins — The ten-year cycle — The titles of 
the king and nobles — The worship of images — Resemblance of pyramids 
of America to those of the Buddhists — An image of Buddha— The 
spread of the Buddhist religion — History of the Chichimecas — Resem- 
blance of Japanese to Mexicans — Analogies of Asiatic and American 
civilizations pointed out by Humboldt — Credit due de Guignes — Appen- 
dix — Ma Twan-lin''s account — The fn-sang said to be the prickly poppy 
of Mexico — Laws punishing a criminal's family have existed in China — 
Chinese cycle of sixty years existed in India — Cattle harnessed to carts 
— The grapes of Fu-sang wild, not cultivated — Another Chinese custom 
in Fu-sang — The route to Ta-han — The route to Japan very indirect — 
Priests called lamas both in Mexico and Tartarv. 



CHAPTER V. 

De Paeavet's New Proofs . . . . . .66 

De Paravey's researches preceded those of Neumann and d'Eichthal — Con- - 
nection between the Malay and American languages — Fu-sang located near 
San Francisco — Chinese picture of a native of Fu-sang — Spotted deer — 
Cattle-horns in Mexico — Horses — Nations of Northern Asia — Appendix 
A — Buddhist monuments in America — A figure of Buddha in Yucatan — 
The worship of Siva — The explorations of Dupaix — Foot-print in the 
rocks — The cause of eclipses — Pyramids — Appendix B — A Buddhist 
sanctuary near the Colorado River — The name Quatu-zaca — The Mexi- 
cans emigrants from the north — Appendix C — An engraving of a native 
of Fu-sang — The natives of Oregon — The deer of America — Connection 
of American and Asiatic tribes — Pearl-fishing — The cochineal insect and 
the nopal — The people of Coph^ne — American place-names which ap- 
pear to contain the name Sakya. 



CONTENTS. xi 

CHAPTER VI. 

PAGK 

Neumann'8 Monogeaph . . . . . .78 

The knowledge of foreign nations possessed by the Chinese — Their precepts 
— The journey of Lao-tse — Embassies and spies — Knowledge derived 
from foreign visitors — Its preservation in Chinese records — The introduc- 
tion of Buddhism — Its command to extend its doctrines to all nations — 
Chinese system of geography and ethnology — The unity of the Tartars 
and Red-skins — American languages — The Tunguses, or Eastern Barba- 
rians — The Pe-ti, or Northern Barbarians — The Ainos, or Jebis, and the 
Negritos — The Wen-shin, or Pictured-people — Embassies between China 
and Japan — The Country of Dwarfs — The Chinese " Book of Mountains 
and Seas " — Information given by a Japanese embassador — Kamtchatka, 
the Tchuktchi, and the Aleuts — Lieukuei — The length of the li — Licu- 
kuei, a peninsula — The land of the Je-tshay — The natives of Kamtchat- • 
ka — Their dwellings — Their clothing — The climate — The animals of the 
country — The customs of the people — The country of the Wen-shin identi- 
fied with the Aleutian Islands — Ta-han, or Alaska — The kingdom of Fvr- 
sang and its inhabitants — The Amazons — Fu-sang identified with the 
western portion of America called Mexico — The fu-sang tree — Only one 
voyage made — Chinese accounts of Fti-sang — The distance from Ta-han, 
or Alaska, indicates that Fu-sang is Mexico — The oldest history of 
America — Successive tribes — The ruins of Mitla and Palenque — Some- 
thing of earlier races to be learned from the condition of the Aztecs — 
Pyramidical monuments — If Buddhism existed in America, it was an im- 
pure form— The myth of Huitzilopochtli — l:\ie fu-sang, the maguey, or 
Agave Americana — Connection between the flora of America and that of 
Asia — Metals and money — Laws and customs of the Aztecs — Domestic 
animals — Horses — Oxen — Stag-horns — Chinese and Japanese in the 
Hawaiian group and in Northwestern America — Shipwrecks upon the 
American coast — The voyages of the Japanese. 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Arguments of Mm. Perez and Godron . . .104 

Knowledge of America possessed by the Chinese — The Country of Women 
— Other travelers relate incredible stories— rKlaproth's argument — The 
account contained in the Japanese Encyclopcedia — Note denying that 
Fu-sang is Japan — Weakness of Klaproth's argument — Identity of names 
of cities in Asia and America — American languages — Resemblance of 
the Tartars to the Aborigines of America — Similitude of customs — A 
Buddhist mission to America in the fifth century — The Chinese able to 
measure distances, and possessed of the compass — The musk-oxen and 
bisons of America — Horses — Names of European animals misapplied to 
American animals — The "horse-deer" of America — Vines — The diffi- 
culty in identifying the fu-sang tree — Iron and copper in America and 
Japan. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

D'EicnTHALS "Study" . . . . . .119 

The Buddhistic origin of American civilization — The geographical relations 
between Northeastern Asia and Northwestern America — The memoirs of 
de Guignes and Klaproth — If Fu-sang was in Japan, there is no room 
for the " Country of Women " — The Japanese deny that Fu-sang was in 
their country — De Guignes's map — The ease of a voyage from Asia to 



Xii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

America — The warm current of the Pacific Ocean — The Aleutian Islands 
— Voyages of the natives — The civilization of New Mexico — A white 
population — Cophune — Buddhism — How it is modified and propagated — 
Its absorption of the doctrines of other religions — Its proselytism — Its 
religious communities — The route from Cophene to Fu-sang — A Bud- 
dhist sanctuary at Palenque — Description of Stephens — An image of 
Buddha — The lion-headed couch — The winged globe — The aureola about 
the figure — Decadence in art — The altars upon which flowers and fruits 
are offered — Reply to observations of M. Vivien de Saint-Martin — The 
two routes to Ta-han—Va^x, country located near the mouth of the 
Amoor River — Traces of Buddhism in that neighbourhood — Ease of 
voyage to the Aleutian islands — Klaproth's theory untenable — No other 
hypothesis remaining than that Fa-sang must be sought in America. 



CHAPTER IX. 

COINOIDENOES NoTED BY HuMBOLDT, LOBSOHEID, AND PrESCOTT . 142 

Extracts from the " Views of the Cordilleras " — Similarity of Asiatic and 
American civilizations — The struggles of the Brahmans and Buddhists — 
The divisions of the great cycles — The Mexicans designated the days of 
their months by the names of the zodiacal signs used in Eastern Asia — 
Cipactli and Capricornus — Table of resemblances — The tiger and monkey 
found only in southern countries — The Aztec migration from the north 
— Resemblance between certain Mexican and Tartarian words — The 
cutting-stones of the Aztecs — The sign Ollin and the foot-prints of Vish- 
nu — Effects of a mixture of several nations — Changes resulting from 
changed circumstances and lapse of time —Analogies in religious cus- 
toms — Analogy in the fables regarding the destructions of the universe 
— Lobscheid's reasons for thinking the American Indians to be one race 
with the Japanese and Eastern Asiatics — Similarity of customs — Tiles 
— Anchors — The route from Asia to America — Shipwrecks of fishing- 
boats — Head-dresses — Languages — Religion — Customs — Marriage sol- 
emnized by tying the garments together — Extracts from Prescott's " His- 
tory of the Conquest of Mexico " — Analogies in traditions and religious 
usages — Disposal of the bodies of the dead — The analogies of science — 
The calendar — General conclusions. 



CHAPTER X. 
Shorter Essays ....... 161 

" Where was Fu-sang ? " — by the Rev. Nathan Brown, D. D. — Difficulties at- 
tending a decision— Horses — Grapes — Reason for thinking i^M-s«??/7 more 
distant than Japan — Length of the /* — Distances of the route — Difficul- 
ties attending Klaproth's theory — The military expeditions of the Japa- 
nese — The introduction of the Buddhist religion — The Hans — Gnat 
Han — Identification of the fu-sang tree with the bread-fruit tree — Con- 
clusion — Remarks of the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg — The paper and 
books of the Mexicans and Central Americans — Civilization of New 
Mexico — Chinese boats — Animals — Mr. Lcland's "Fusang" — An earlier 
article — Who discovered America ? — J. Ilanlay's essay — The fu-sanf; tree 
identified with the maguey — Metals — Resemblance in religion and cus- 
toms — Also in features — Language — Civilization on Pacific coast — Letter 
of Mr. Th. Simson — The Mexican aloe — The fu-sang tree — Japan — 
Letter of E. Bretschneider, M. D. — Accounts of Fu-sang by the Chinese 
poets — " The Kingdom of Women " — Verdict of Father Hyacinth — The 
distance — Horses and deer — The fusang tree — The t'ung tree — The pa- 



CONTENTS. xiii 

PAGE 

per mulberry — Metals — " The Kingdom of Women " and Salt Lake City — 
Fu-sang not Japan — Ta-han in Siberia — Envoys from Fu-sang — Contra- 
dictory fancies — Mr. Leland's criticism — Letter of Pere Gaubil — Unre- 
liability of Chinese texts — The peopling of Japan — Chinese knowledge of 
surrounding countries — Remarks of Humboldt — Letter of the Rt. Rev. 
Channing M. Williams — The Chinese " Classic of Mountains and Seas " — 
Fabulous stories — Translation of extracts therefrom — Remarks of M. 
Leon de Rosny — Passage from Asia to America — The distance — Char- 
acter of the Esquimaux — An article from a newspaper of British Colum- 
bia — Discovery of Chinese coins in the bank of a creek — Evidence that 
they had been buried for a long time. 

CHAPTER XL 
Remarks of Mm. Yivien de Saint-Maetin and Ltjcien Adam . 185 

"An Old Story Set Afloat" — The route to Fu-sang — Identity of the Ainos 
with the Wcn-sldn — Ta-han near the mouths of the Amoor River — Route 
of Buddhist missionaries to the Amoor — Civilization of Buddhist origin 
— Pillars with Buddhist inscriptions — Necessity of accurate translation 
— Twenty thousand li signify only a very great distance — The fu-sang 
tree — Warlike habits — Lack of draught animals — Civilization of Mexico 
— Difficulty of the voyage — Conclusion — Remarks of M. Adam — Chinese 
acquainted with America — Ease of the journey — Travels of Buddhist 
monks — Points characteristic of American civilization — Ten-year cycle — 
The fu-sang tree — The t'ung tree — The hibiscus — The Dryanda cordata 
— The maguey, or agave — Zoological objections — Punishments — Slave 
children — Absurdities — Legend of Quetzalcoatl — He came from the East 
— The legend a myth — Colleges of priests — Practice of confession — The 
alleged figure of Buddha — The elephant's head — Lack of tusks — America 
for the Americans — Theory that Hwui Shan repeated the stories of Chi- 

- nese sailors — Remarks of M. de Hellwald and Professor Joly. 

CHAPTER XII. 

D'Heevey's Notes . . , , . . . 204 

Bibliography — The name of the priest — The city oi King-cheu — Ta-han — 
Lieu-kuci, a peninsula — Earlier knowledge of Fu-sang — The construction 
of the dwellings — The lack of arms and armour — The punishment of 
criminals — The titles of the nobles — The title Tui-Iu found in Corea — The 
colours of the king's garments — The cycle of ten years — Peruvian his- 
tory — The long catt'le-horns — The food prepared from milk — The red 
pears — Grapes — The worship of images of spirits of the dead — Its ex- 
istence in China — Coph^ne — The " Kingdom of Women " — The legumes 
used as food — Wen-shin — The punishment of criminals — The name Ta- 
han — The country identified with Kamtchatka — Two countries of that 
name — One lying north of China, and one lying east — Unwarlike nature 
of the people, 

CHAPTER XIIL 

D'Heevey's Appendix ....... 217 

Diiference between Jloei SJiin^s story and other Chinese accounts — An 
earlier knowledge of Fu-sang — The poem named the Li-sao — The Shan- 
hai-king — The account of Tong-fang-so — The immense size of the coun- 
try — The burning of books in China — The origin of the Chinese — The 
writer Kuan-mei — The arrival of Hoei Shin in 499 — The civil war then 



xiv CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

raging — The delay in obtaining an imperial audience — The " History of 
the Four Lords of the Liang Dynasty " — An envoy from Fu-sang — The 
presents offered by him — Yellow silk — A semi-transparent mirror — This 
envoy was IJoei Shi» — The stories told by Yu-kie — The silk found upon 
the fii-sang tree — The palace of the king — The Kingdom of Women — 
Serpent-husbands — The Smoking Mountain — The Black Valley — The ani- 
mals of the country — The amusement of the courtiers — The poem Tong- 
king-fu — The route to Fu-sang — Fu-sang east of Japan — Lieu-kuci — 
The direction of the route. 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Peofessob Williams's Argument ..... 230 

" Notices of Fu-sang and other Countries lying East of China " — The ori- 
gin of American tribes — The work of H. II. Bancroft— Mr. Leland's book 
— Ma Twan-lin — His " Antiquarian Researches " — Hwui-shin's story — 
Cophene — No later accounts of Fu-sang — The titles of the nobility — The 
ten-year cycle — Red pears — The fu-sang tree — No mention of pulque — 
Brocade — Fables — Account of the IShih Cliau Ki — The article of the 
Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys — Criticisms thereon — Fang-lai — The 
distance of Japan and Fu-sang — The name Fu-sang sometimes applied 
to Japan— Mention of the fu-sang tree in a Chinese geography — Expedi- 
tions sent to search for Fu-sang — Comparison with Swift's " Voyage to 
Lapvita " — The Kingdom of Women — Mention by Maundevile and Marco 
Polo of a land of Amazons — The country of Wan Shan — Tattooing — Its 
existence among the Esquimaux — Quicksilver — Two kingdoms of Ta Han 
— Lieu-kuei and the Lewchew Islands. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Additional Information. — Nature of tue Chinese Language . 249 

Fu-sang wood — NiS-yao-kiun-ti — The Warm Spring Valley — The Shin I 
King — The kingdom Hi-ho-koue — The astronomer Hi-ho — The story of 
a Corean — An island of women — Fung-lai — An expedition to explore 
it — The colonization of Japan — Lang Yuen — The Kwun-lun Mountains 
— A statue of a native of Fu-sang — A poem to his memory — The tree of 
stone — Varying translations — The peculiarities of the Chinese language 
— The brevity and conciseness of the written language — Its lack of 
clearness — The meaning of groups of characters, or compounds — Proper 
names — No punctuation — Difficulty of translating correctly — Preparation 
of M. Julien — Illustrations of mistakes. 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Description of Fu-sang. ..... 260 

The Chinese authorities — Variations in the texts — The Chinese text — A 
literal translation — Parallel translations of eight authors — The date of 
Hwui ShSn's arrival in China — The location of Fu-sang — The fu-sang 
trees — The derivation of the name of the country — The leaves of the 
fu-sang tree — Its first sprouts — Red pears — Thread and cloth — Dwell- 
ings — Literary characters — Paper — Lack of arms — The two places of 
confinement — The difference between them — The pardon of criminals — 
Marriages of the prisoners — Slave-children — The punishment of a crimi- 
nal of high rank — The great assembly — Suffocation in ashes — Punish- 
ment of his family — Titles of the king and nobles — JIusicians — The 
king's garments — The changing of their colour — A ten-year cycle — Long 



CONTEXTS. XV 

PAGE 

cattle-horns — Their great size — Horse-carts, cattle-carts, and deer-carts — 
Domesticated deer — Koumiss — The red pears preserved throughout the 
year — To-p'u-T'Aoes — The lack of iron — Abundance of copper — Gold 
and silver not valued — Barter in their markets— rCourtship — The cabin 
of the suitor — The sweeping and watering of the path — The ceremonies 
of marriage — Mourning customs — The worship of images of the dead 
— The succession to the throne — A visit from a party of Buddhist mis- 
sionaries — Their labours and success. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Kingdom of "Women, the Land of " Marked Bodies," and 

TQE Geeat Han Cocntet ..... 301 

The accounts of all these countries derived from the same source — The 
Chinese text — The location of the Kingdom of Women — Its inhabitants 
— Their long locks — Their migrations — Birth of their young — Nursing ' 
the young — The age at which they walk — Their timidity — Their devotion 
to their mates — The salt-plant — Its peculiarities — A shipwreck — The 
women — A tribe whose language could not be understood — Men with 
puppies' heads — Their food, clothing, and dwellings — The land of 
" Marked Bodies " — Its location — Tattooing with three lines — The char- 
acter of the people — Lack of fortifications — The king's residence — 
Water-silver — No money used — The Country of Great Han — Its location 
— Lack of weapons — Its people. 

CHAPTER XVIIL 
The Length of the Li. — The name " Geeat Han " . . 328 

The direction from Japan in which Fu-sang lay — Variations in standards 
of measure — The Chinese li about one third of a mile in length — The 
greater length of the Japanese li — Possibility of still another standard 
in Corea — Communication between Corea and Japan and between Corea 
and China — Chinese knowledge of the route to Japan derived from 
Corean sources — Fu-sang farther from " Great Han " than Japan is — 
Distances stated with at least approximate accuracy — The country of 
"Marked Bodies" identified as the Aleutian Islands — Allowances for 
changes and misunderstandings — Caesar's account of the inhabitants of 
Britain — Maundovile's repetition of the story — " Great Han " identified 
as Alaska — Land found in the regions indicated by Hwui Shan — Mean- 
ing of the character "Han" — Nature of the Chinese characters — The 
manner in which they are compounded of two parts — Some characters 
in which the meaning is affected by that of botli parts — Application of 
the character "Han" to a swirling stream and to the Milky Way — 
Hence its possible meaning of " dashing water " — Meaning of the name 
"Alaska" — The breakers of the Aleutian Islands — The population — A 
philological myth — The hypotheses upon one of which Hwui Shan's 
story must be explained — The explanation should be consistent. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

The Customs of the Land of "Marked Bodies," and of Great 

Han 343 

Necessity of examining the account in detail — The resemblance of the peo- 
ple of the two countries — Their customs — Their languages — The marks 
upon their bodies — Tattooing with three lines — Existence of the custom 



xvi CONTENTS. 

* PAGE 

in America — The marks a sign of the position of their bearer — The 
merry nature of the people — Their feasts and dances — Their hospitality 
— Hospitality of the American Indians — The Iroquois — The Esquimaux 
— The Aleutians — Absence of fortifications — The chiefs — The decora- 
tion of their dwellings — The Haidah Indians — Other Indian tribes from 
British Columbia to Alaska — Esquimaux fondness for ornamentation — 
Ditches — The dwellings of the people — Water-silver — Proof that ice is 
meant — Quicksilver — No country ever had ditches filled with quicksilver 
— The traffic by means of precious gems — No money used — Value of 
amber — The peaceful nature of the people — The punishment of crime — 
Summary of facts mentioned by Hwui Shiln — Application of the doctrine 
of chances — The two countries bearing the name of Great Han. 

CHAPTER XX. 
The Country lying in the Eegion indicated by Hwui ShIn . 360 

The direction from China, Japan, and Great Han in which Fu-sang lay — 
The trend of the American Pacific coast — The distortion of the com- 
mon maps — Mexico lies in the region indicated — The nations inhabiting 
Mexico in the fifth century — Their language — Traces of their beliefs and 
customs existing one thousand years later — Aztec traditions — The Tol- 
tecs — Their character — Their civilization — The time of their dispersion 
— Their language — The Pacific coast — The evidence of place-names — The 
Aztec language — Limits of the Mexican empire — The name of the coun- 
try — The city of Tenochtitlan — The application of the name " Mexico " 
— First applied to the country — Early maps — Late application of the 
name to the city — Pronunciation of the word — Similar names throughout 
the country — Meaning of the syllable " co " — Varying explanations — 
Real meaning of the term — " The Place of the Century-plant " — Meaning 
of the syllable " me " — Meaning of the syllable " xi " — Its meaning in 
other compounds — Other abbreviations — Appropriateness of the designa- 
tion — The god Mexitli — Proof that he was the god of the century-plant 
— Reason that the Spaniards were misled as to the meaning of " Mexico." 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Fu-sang Tree and the Red Pears .... 382 

Connection between the name of the country and that of the " tree " — Ap- 
plication to smaller plants of the Chinese character translated " tree " — 
Application of the term " tree " to the century-plant — Description of the 
metl, maguey, agave, aloe, or century-plant — The leaves of the fu-sang — 
Disagreement of different texts — The t'ung tree — Evidence of corruption 
in the text — Conjecture as to original reading — Similarity of the young 
sprouts to those of the bimboo — Their edibility — Thread and cloth from 
the fiber of the plant — The finer fabric made from it — Variation in the 
texts — Manufacture of paper — The red pear — The prickly-pear — Resem- 
blance of the century-plant to the cacti — Preserves made from the prickly- 
pears — Confusion in the Mexican language between milk and the sap of 
the century-plant — The Chinese " lo," or koumiss — The liquor made 
from the sap of the century-plant — Its resemblance to koumiss — Indians 
never use milk — Confusion in other Indian languages between sap and 
milk — Meaning of the name fu-sang — ^Variations in the characters with 
which it is written — The spontaneous reproduction of the century-plant 
— The decomposition of the character " sang " — The tree of the large 
wine-jar — The tree having a great cloud of blossoms — Blooming but 
once in a thousand years — The Chinese name of the prickly-pear — 
Eitel's definition of the term " fu-sang " — Professor Gray's statement. 



CONTENTS. xvii 

CHAPTER XXII. 

PAGE 

The Language of Fu-sang ...... 403 

Peculiarities of the Chinese languajje — Difficulty of indicating pronunciation 
of foreign words — Examples — Change in sound of Chinese characters — 
The pisang or banana tree — Names of countries terminated with kwoh 
— The character sang — The character fu — The most distant countries 
at the four points of the compass distinguished by names beginning 
with FU — Mexican dialects — Fu-sang-kwoh and Me-shi-co — The title of 
the king — Montezuma's title — Title of the noblemen of the first rank — 
The Mexican Tecuhtli, or Teule — The Petty Ttri-Lu — The Nah-to-sha, or 
Tlatoque — The title lower than that of Tecuhtli — Its meaning — Tran- 
scription of foreign words by characters indicating both the meaning 
and the sound — To-p'u-ta'ocs, or tomatoes — The grape-vine — The tree of 
stone — A Mexican pun — Danger of being misled by accidental or fancied 
resemblance. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Peculiarities of the Country ..... 418 

The construction of the dwellings — Adobe walls — The " Casas Grandes " — 
Houses of planks — Lack of armour — Absence of fortifications — Literary 
characters — The pomp which surrounded the Aztec monarch — Musical 
instruments — The evanescence of Montezuma's pomp — Kulers accom- 
panied by musical instruments — Tangaxoan — The king of Guatemala — 
The king of Quiche — Homage to the Spaniards and to the Spanish priests 
— The long cattle-horns — The Chinese measure called a hdh — Animals 
of the New World erroneously designated by the names of those of the 
Old World — Bisons — Their range — An extinct species — Its gigantic 
horns — The horns of the Rocky Mountain sheep — Use of horns by the 
Indians — Herds of tame deer — The lack of iron — The use of copper — 
Gold and silver not valued — Their markets — Barter — Customs attending 
courtship — Sprinkling and sweeping the ground as an act of homage — 
The customs of the Apaches — The fastened horse — The Coco-Maricopas 
— Serenades — Huts built in front of those of the parents — The length 
of the " year " — The punishment of criminals of high rank — The sweat- 
house, or estufa — Indian councils — Severe punishment of men of distinc- 
tion — Custom in Darien — Punishment witnessed by Cortez — Smothering 
in ashes. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Narrator of the Story . . . . . 439 

The condition of China at the time — The reign of a Buddhist emperor — 
The bhikshus, or mendicant priests — Their duties — Rules for their con- 
duct — The name Hwui Shan — Frequency with which the name Hwui 
occurs — Meaning of the characters — The nationality of Hwui Shan — 
Cophene — Struggle between Brahmanism and Buddhism — The route 
from India to China — The command that at least three should go to- 
gether when traveling — Persecution in China in the year 458 — The 
journey to America by water — Ease of the trip — Probabihty that Hwui 
Shan was but slightly acquainted with the Chinese language — Yu Kie'a 
criticism of Hwui Shan's statements — Causes of errors — Use of the term 
" water-silver " — Accounts given by first explorers seldom free from 
error — Absurdities narrated by other Chinese travelers — Pliny — Hero- 
dotus — Marco Polo — Maundevile — Cnesar — The unicorn — Elks without 
joints in their legs — The Icelandic account of Vinland — Difficulties in 



xviii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

the account — The Unipeds — The Zeno brothers — Ignorance of geography 
in the fifteenth century — Marvelous tales of early explorers — Allowances 
to be made — Hwui Slian entitled to equal charity. 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The Introduction of Asiatic Oitilization . . . .456 

The former ignorance of the people — The introduction of Buddhism — The 
changes of a thousand years — The two places of confinement — Meaning 
of the character fah — Two species of prisons — One lor those sentenced 
to death — The other for minor criminals — The Mexican Hades — The 
future abode of the Aztec hero — The sojourn but temporary — The dark 
and djsmal " Place of the Dead," in the north — Confinement here eternal 
— The slave children — Treatment of illegitimate children 'and of orphans 
— Age at which children were taken to the temple — Boys at seven years 
of age — Girls at eight — Chinese custom of calling children a year older 
than they would be considered by us — The punishment of the family of a 
criminal — Mourning customs — Fasts — Funerals — Images of the deceased 
— Reverence of these images and offerings to them — The custom in 
China — The absence of mourning-garments — The king not fully crowned 
until some time after his accession to the throne. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Inteoduction of Asiatic Civilization. — {Concluded.) . 470 

The colour of the king's garments — Colours in Asia — Green and blue con- 
founded — The dyes used by the Mexicans — Changes of the king's gar- 
ments — Dresses of different colours for different occasions — Various 
species of mantles worn — Changes becanise of superstitious ideas — Length 
of the " year " — Divisions of the day — The marriage ceremonies — Chinese 
customs — Mexican customs attributed to Quetzalcoatl — Mexican weddings 
— The horse-carts, cattle-carts, and deer-carts — Difficulties of this passage 
— Explanations suggested — The introduction of the horse into America — 
Extinct species of horses in America — Indian traditions — Name may 
have been applied to some other animal — Mirage — The Buddhist descrip- 
tion of the " three carts " or " three vehicles." 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
The Countet of Women and its Inhabitants . . . 487 

Stories of Amazons — Account of Ptolemy — That of Maundevile — Marco 
Polo — The Arabs — The Chinese — Similar stories in America — Explana- 
tions of these accounts — " Cihuatlan," the Place of Women — The account 
given by Cortez — Nufio de Guzman — The expedition to Cihuatlan — The 
monkeys of Southern Mexico — Their resemblance to human beings — 
Stories of pygmies — Classical tales — Pliny's account — That of Maunde- 
vile — The worship of Hanuman in India — Chinese stories — The Wrang- 
ling People — The Eloquent Nation — The Long-armed People — "Chu-ju," 
or the Land of Pygmies — Pygmies in America — Mexican monkeys — Their 
long locks, queues, or tails — Their migration — Their bickering or chatter- 
ing — Their rutting-season— The period of gestation — The beginning of 
the year in China, Tartary, and Mexico — The absence of breasts — Nurs- 
ing children over the shoulder — Young monkeys carried on their mothers' 
backs — Long hair at the back of the head — A different translation sug- 
gested — Age at which they can walk — That at which they become fully 
grown — Their timidity — Their devotion to their mates. 



CONTENTS. xix 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PAGE 

The Country of "Womek and its Inhabitants. — {Concluded.) . 505 

The habit of standing erect — The colour of the inhabitants — Albinos — 
Aztlan, " the White Land " — The mountain Jzfaccihuail, or " the White 
Woman" — The Iztauhyatl, or "salt-plant" — The salt of the Mexicans 
and Chinese — References of Sahagun to the Iztauhyatl — An erroneous 
identification — References to it by Hernandez — The salt-weed — The sage- 
brush — The characteristic vegetation of Mexico — Food of the monkeys — 
Cattle and game fattened upon the white sage — Its value in Asia — The 
Mexican rainy season — The preceding month of "hard times" — DiflBculty 
of obtaining food at this season — Animals coming to lowlands in the 
spring to feed upon the early vegetation — A sweet variety of sage — 
The use of an herb to sweeten meat — Chinese description of monkeys — 
An Aztec pun — Shipwreck of a Chinese fishing-boat — Corean fishing- 
boats — Japanese vessels wrecked on the American coast — The land 
reached thought to be that mentioned by Uwui Shan — The women of 
the country — The language that could not be understood — Heads like 
those of puppies — The Cynocephali — Their voices — Barking Indians — 
Their food — Their clothing — Their dwellings — The doorways. 

CHAPTER XXIX, 
Yu Kie's Statements eeoaeding Fit-sang . . . .519 

The envoy from the kingdom of Fu-sang — The commission of Yu Kie — 
Hwui Shan the envoy mentioned — Yu Kie's story — The presents given 
to the emperor — The custom of offering tribute — The yellow silk — The 
term applied to vegetable fibers — Sisal hemp — Its strength — Probability 
that the agave fiber would be brought home by a traveler — The semi- 
transparent mirror — Mexican obsidian mirrors — Nature of obsidian — 
The "Palace of the Sun" — The Chinese zodiac — Their horary cycle — 
Concave and convex mirrors — Obsidian mirrors peculiar to Mexico — The 
silk taken from the agave — Lack of cocoons — The seeds of the century- 
plant carried to Corea — The use of agave leaves as fuel — The ashes 
used for obtaining lye — The agave fiber steeped in an alkaline solution — 
The feast of Huitzilopochtli — ^Intercourse between Corea and China — The 
Corean records — Possibility that further information may be found in 
them — The palace of the king — The glitter of obsidian in the morning 
light — The Country of Women again — Serpent husbands — The expedi- 
tion of Xuno de Guzman — The Smoking Mountain — Volcanoes — Hairy 
worms — The "nopal de la tierra " — The fire-trees — The fire-rats — The 
Black Valley — The Snowy Range — Huitzilopochtli — The intoxicating liq- 
uor — The " Sea of Varnish " — Petroleum — Mineral springs — Hot springs 
— The extent of the land — ^Animals — Winged men — Birds that bear hu- 
man beings. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Mexican Traditions ....... 536 

Mexican hieroglyphics — The tradition regarding Wixipecocha — His arrival 
— His appearance — His conduct — His teachings — Persecution — His de- 
parture — Survival of the doctrines he taught — The " Wiyatao " — Another 
version of the tradition — The written account preserved by the Mijes — 
The " Taysacaa " — Identity of the term Wixipecocha with the name and 
title " Hwui Shin, bhikshu " — The JMexican language — Huazontlan — 
Quetzalcoatl — His history not a mj-th — The epoch at which he lived — 
His arrival — His garments — His attendants — Their knowledge of arts — 



XX CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Another account — Customs introduced — Religious penances — The founda- 
tion of monasteries and nunneries — Behef that he was a Buddhist priest 
— Brahnianism and Buddhism — The worship of Siva — The religion of 
Nepal — The goddess Kali — The worship of Mictlancihuatl — Quetzalcoatl's 
horror of bloodshed — The arts he taught — The' calendar — Ilis promise 
to return — His vow to drink no intoxicating liquor — His temptation and 
fall — His sorrow — Etymology of his name — Its true meaning not " the 
Plumed Serpent," but " the Revered Visitor " — Term applied to the 
priests of Nepal — The Mexican " Cihuacoatl " — The arrival of Quetzal- 
coatl from the east — Possible explanations — The crosses on his mantle 
— Explanation of occurrence of crosses in Yucatan — Intercourse with 
the West Indian Islands — The god Hurakan — Oracles and prophecies — 
Veneration of the cross in ancient times — Its occurrence in India and 
Egypt — Its use in Asia as a symbol of peace — The patchwork cloaks of 
the Buddhist priests — Buddha's commands — The mark of a foot-print 
in the rocks — Occurrence of such foot-prints in America and Asia — 
Veneration shown them. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Various American Traditions. — Buddhism .... 555 

White and bearded men wearing long robes — The great numbers of coun- 
tries in which such traditions exist — Non-intercourse between them — 
Traditions of Yucatan — Zamna and Cukulcan — The introduction of the 
alphabet — Attendants — The name Cukulcan — The three brothers of 
Chichen Itza — The buildings erected — The teachings of Cukulcan — His 
departure — The survival of his doctrines — Votan — His long-robed attend- 
ants — Resemblance of name " Votan " to Asiatic perversions of " Gau- 
tama" — The time of these visits — The "katuns" of Yucatan — South 
American traditions — The Muyscas — Their civilization — The arrival of a 
white stranger — His names — The arts he taught — His doctrines — The 
veneration of the people for him — Resemblance of his names to Buddhist 
titles — A Pachcheko — The Updsakas — The Chinese Ho Shang — Tradition 
of the Guaranis — Tamoi, Tamu, Tume, or Zume — His teachings — The 
impress of his foot-prints — The tradition in Paraguay — His promise to 
return — Adventure of the fathers de Montoya and de Mendoza — The 
Brazilian tradition — The great road — Foot-prints — Another tradition — 
The story in Chili — Tonapa in Peru — His appearance — His mildness — 
His teachings — His departure — Viracocha — The pyramids of Peru — Con, 
or Contice — The Buddhist decalogue — Avoidance of women — Buddhist 
practices — The dress of the priests — Hats not worn by the Indians — 
Resemblance of teachings of the American culture-heroes to those of the 
Roman Catholics — Resemblances between Buddhism and Roman Catholi- 
cism — Their monasteries — Their doctrines — The costume of the Grand 
Lama — Belief in an early mixture of Christianity and Buddhism — A Cen- 
tral American image — The calendar — The arts practiced by Buddhist 
priests — The art of casting metals — Sculptured vases. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Religious Customs and Beliefs ..... 574 

The incongruity of the religious system of the Aztecs — The Toltccs — Con- 
tentions between rival sects — Monasteries — The " Tlamacazqui " — The 
herb-eaters — Their asceticism — The monastery and nunnery attached to 
the chief temple of the city of Mexico — The duties of the devotees — The 
clothing — The discipline — The differences in rank — Other ascetics — Pro- 
bation of candidates — Vows not for life — Married priests — The monas- 



CONTENTS. xxi 



PAGE 



J 

tery of the Totonacas— The pontiff of Mixteca— The title "Taysaeaa"— 
Auricular confession— The practice of bearing a calabash— The dress of 
the priests— Continence— Prayers— Fasting— The early disciples of Sakya 
Muni— The Buddhist monasteries— Candidates for the priesthood— Edu- 
cation of children— Food and clothing— Penances— Nunneries— Life of 
the inmates— Punishment of incontinence— Time for meals— Clothing of 
idols— Absence of vital points of Christian doctrine— Marriage of the 
priests— Veo-etarianism— Failure of the Buddhists to strictly comply with 
the tenets of their religion— The eating of flesh— A curious anomaly in 
Buddha's teachings— Religious terms— The name Sakya— Its occurrence 
in Mexico— Otosis—G autama— Guatemala— Quauhtemo-tzin—Tlama and 
lama— Teotl and Deva— Refutation of a negative argument— Religious 
tenets— The road to the abode of the dead— The divisions of the abode 
of the dead— Transmigration— Yearly feast for the souls of the dead— 
The tablet at Palenque— The lion-headed couch— Seated figures— An 
image of Quetzalcoatl— The story of CamaxtU— Preservation of his 
blonde hair. 

CEAPTER XXXIII. 

The Pyramids, Idols, and Aets of Mexico .... 597 
Temples built upon truncated pyramids— Mounds antedating Aztec occupa- 
tion—Speculations as to the date of their erection— The Place of the 
House of Flowers— The monuments of San Juan Teotihuacan— Their size 
—Their construction — Mexican " teocallis "—Their proportions — Re- 
semblances to the pyramids of India— Pyramids found wherever Bud- 
dhism prevails — The tumulus or tope— Its occurrence at Nineveh, in 
China, and Ceylon — Resemblances noticed by several authors — The tem- 
ple of Boro-Budor in Java— The palace at Palenque — Dome-shaped 
edifices — The dome at Chichen — The construction of the pyramids— The 
layer of stone or brick— The layer of plaster— The false arch— Decora- 
tive paintings — The priests the artists — The ornament upon the breast — 
The name Chaacmol — Cornices— Friezes — Representation of curved 
swords — An elephant's head as a head-dress— Other ornaments in shape 
of an elephant's trunk — The elephant the symbol of Buddha— The tapir 
— Remains of the elephant or mastodon in America — Their possible con- 
temporaneity with man— Pipes carved in the shape of elephants — Their 
discovery— An inscribed tablet— The elephant-mound of Wisconsin — A 
Chippewa tradition — Ganesa — Teoyaomiqui— Their resemblance — The 
conception of Huitzilopochtli — The story of Cuaxolotl — Tezcatlipoca — 
The mirror held by him — Similar idols in Asia — The imprint of the hand 
— The cataclysms by which the human race has been destroyed — The 
cardinal points — Their connection with certain colours — The temples of 
Thibet— The palace of Quetzalcoatl— A small green stone buried with 
the dead — Sweeping the path before the monarch — The use of garments 
and dishes but once — The breech-cloth — Quilted armour — Suspension- 
bridges — Books — Marriage ceremonies and customs — Tying the gar- 
ments together — Postponement of the consummation of marriage — Po- 
lygamy — Children carried on the hip— Children's toys — The cakes used 
as food — A game — Practices of many Asiatic countries — Milk not used 
— Authors led to believe in a connection between Asiatic and Mexican 
civilization— Differences between the Mexicans and other American tribes 
— Erroneous criticism. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

TiiE History of Japan ..•••• 623 

Records reaching back nominally to 660 b. c. — Gaps in the history — Great 
age of sovereigns — A giant — Absence of exact dates — The introduction 



xxii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

of writing — Manufacture of paper — Chinese records of embassies — Men- 
tion of a Japanese sovereign whose name does not appear in the Japa- 
nese annals — Translation of extracts from the Japanese history — Inter- 
course with Corea and China — Embassies — Wars — Introduction of Bud- 
dhism — Titles of nobility — Copper, silver, and gold — Intercourse of Corea 
with Japan and China — The Chinese account of Japan — The route from 
China to Japan — The distance — Cattle and horses not raised — Tattooing 
— Clothing — Cities — Polygamy — Laws — Burial of the dead — The " Chi- 
shuai " — An envoy — A later embassy — A Japanese princess — The king- 
dom of Kiu-nu ; that of Chu-ju — The Eastern Fish-People — A Chinese 
expedition to seek for P'ung-lai — Tan-cheu — Iloute to Japan — The divis- 
ions of Japan — Titles of the officers — Embassies — Tattooing — Absence 
of writing — Mourning-garments — Buddhism — Route to Japan — Discovery 
of gold, silver, iron ore, and copper — The Country of Women — Reasons 
why Fu-sang can not have been situated in Japan — Consideration of 
other theories — Proof that Hwui ShSn had visited some unknown land — 
Had the Chinese any earlier knowledge of America ? — The Shan Hai King. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Ouinese "Classic of Mountains and Seas" . . , 643 

Preface — Suh-chu Mountain — The Mountain of Creeping Plants — Aspen 
Mountain — Hairy birds — The Foreign Range — Kan fish — Ku-mao, Kao- 
SHi, Lofty, Wolf, Lone, Bald, and Bamboo Mountains — K'ung-sang, 
Ts'ao-chi, Yih-kao, and Bean Mountains — An excessively high peak — 
Tu-FU, Kang, Lu-k'i — Ku-SHE, Green Jade-stone, Wei-shi, Ku-fung, 
Fu-Li, and Yin Mountains — Shi-hu, K'i, Chu-kec, Middle Fu, IIu-she, 
Mang-tsz', K'i-chung, Mei-ttj, and Wu-kao Mountains — The Fu-tree (or 
Fc-SANG) — North Hao, Mao, Eastern Shi, Nti-CHiNG, K'lN, Tsz'-tung, 
Yen, and T'ai Mountains — The Cha Hill — The Great Men's Country — 
She-pi's body — The Country of Refined Gentlemen — Hung-hung — The 
Valley of the Manifestation of the Dawn — The Green Hills Country — The 
journey of Shu-hai — The Black-Teeth Country — The Warm Springs Ra- 
vine — Fu-sang — The Place where the Ten Suns bathe — An account of 
the Ten Suns — Yu-shi's concubine — The Black-Hip Country — The Hairy 
People's Country — A boat upon the sea-shore — The Distressed People's 
Country — K'ec-wang — A great valley — Shao-hao — Pi-xir-Ti Hill — Place 
where the Sun and Moon rise — The Great Men's Country — Giants and 
dwarfs — The Great People's Market — The Little People — Kijeh Mount- 
ain — The Country of Plants — Hoh-htj Mountain — The Mountain of the 
Eastern Pass — The Mountain of the Bright Star — The White People's 
Country — The Green Hills Country — The Nation of t!ourteous Vassals — 
The Black-Teeth Countr}' — Summer Island — The KAi-YiJ Country — Cheh- 
tan and the Place of the Rising of the Sun — Yij-kwoh — Quaking Mount- 
ain — The Black-Hip Country — The Needy Tribe — King Hai — Nu-chec — 
YEH-YAO-KitJN-Ti Mountain — The Fr-tree — Warm Springs Valley — 
I-t'ien-so-man Mountain — The Ying Dragon — The Mountain of the 
Flowing Waves. 

CHAPTER XXXVL 

Comments upon toe "Classic of Mountains and Seas" . . 669 

The oldest geography of the world — Article by M. Bazin, Sr. — Its divis- 
ions — Groups of mountains — Taoists of the fourth century — The spirits 
governing the earth — Extravagancies of the work — First mention of the 
book — The Familiar Discourses of Confucius — Thought to be apocryphal 
or corrupted — Tseu-hia — Sse-ma-ts'ien — Sse-ma-ching — Chao-shi — 



CONTENTS. xxiii 

PAOE 

Wang-chong — Tso-sse — The "Book of Waters" — Chang-hoa — Consider- 
ation of tlie western and southern kingdoms — Summaries of the geogra- 
phy of Tu-yu — Lo-pi — Kia-ching-shi— Cheu-pang — Tsu-tse-yu — The En- 
cyclopaedia of Tu-yeu — Conclusion of M. Bazin — The imperial academy 
of the Han-lin — The Shan Hai King read as a romance or pastime — 
Particularly by young men — Opinions of commentators — Xotes — Gaps 
or omissions — The "Bamboo Books" — Length of the work — No transla- 
tion heretofore made — M. Burnouf s intention to translate it — Change 
of opinion among scholars as to its value — Monsters mentioned by other 
writers — Tacitus — Men clothed in skins — A river with eight mouths — 
The compass — The T'ien Wu : Lord of tlie Water — Seals, sea-lions, and 
sea-otters — The Islands of the Flowing Stream — Cuttle-fish — Birds with 
hairy legs — Serpents as ear-ornaments — The Shan Hai King a compila- 
tion of a number of distinct accounts — Regions mentioned twice or more 
— Description of Japan — The genii who once ruled the earth — The state 
of civilization — Tigers aAd bears — A poisonous insect — The Ravine of 
the Manifestation of the Dawn — The Hairy People — Fu-sang and the 
Black-Teeth Country — The Malay custom of blackening the teeth — The 
Philippine or Luzon Islands — The banana or plantain (jjisanff) — The 
"ten suns." 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Eecapitiilation . ...... . G84 

Summary of reasons for thinking that Hwui ShSn visited Mexico — The com- 
mand of Buddha — The ease of the journey — The " silk " and mirror 
brought back by him — The belief of his contemporaries — Fu-sang must 
have been in Japan or America, and was not in Japan — Hwui Shan's 
story paralleled with accounts of the countries by other authors — The 
Country of Marked Bodies — Great Han — Fu-sang — The Country of Wom- 
en — Summary of facts mentioned by Hwui Shan — The transparent 
mirror could not have been obtained elsewhere than in Mexico — The 
Mexican tradition of Hwui Shan's visit — Coincidences between Asiatic 
and American civilizations — Pyramids — Architecture — Arts — Religious 
structures — Religious customs and beliefs — Idols — Marriage ceremonies 
— Dress — Food — Books — Games — The working of metals — Suspension- 
bridges — The calendar — Civilized nations of America all upon the Pacific 
coast — Allowances to be made — Errors of first explorers — Hwui Shan 
not a Chinaman — Errors of manuscripts — Changes in language — Changes 
in customs — Our imperfect knowledge of Mexican civilization — The ar- 
gument stronger than its weakest parts — Conclusion, 

APPENDIX. 
List of AuTnoRiTiES and Referencks .... 711 

INDEX 741 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 



The birth of Buddha— His titles— His character— His religious belief— His uni- 
versal charity— His life as a hermit— The discovery which he imagined that 
he had made— Desire that all should share its benefits— His command to 
evangelize the world— The compliance of his disciples— The dispersion from 
India— Countries visited— Traces of the religion in Europe— Also throughout 
j^sia—And in Alaska— The wanderings of Buddhist priests— Few records 
preserved— Ease of journey from Asia to America— The Gulf-Stream of the 
Pacific— Shipwrecks on the Kurile and Aleutian Islands— Records of jour- 
neys of Buddhist priests— Their reliability and value— A Chinese record of a 
visit to an Eastern country— Reasons for crediting the account— Object of this 
work— Previous discussions of the subject— Plan of this work— The discov- 
ery made by de Guignes— Humboldt's views — Klaproth's dissent — The Chev- 
alier de Paravey's essays — Neumann's monograph — Leland's translation and 
comments— Articles by MM. Perez, Vivien de Saint-Martin, d'Eichthal, Bras- 
seur de Bourbourg, Godron, Jones, Brown, Simson, Bret Schneider, Adam, 
d'Hervey de Samt-Denys, Lobscheid, Channing M. Williams, and S. Wells 
Williams. 

Some centuries before the Christian era, in the little vil- 
jj^ggi88o* Qf Kapilavastu,'"** capital of a small kingdom of the 
same name,'^^' in the northern part of India,'*^^ Suddhodana,'-'* 
its king, or rajah, was gladdened by the birth of a son. This 
event .probably^"' occurred in the fifth century b. c.,""' but some 
authorities fix the date in the sixth '^^' or seventh"*^" century ,^<'''' 
while others place it even as early as 1027 b. c. ; '''' and in the 
present state of science it seems impossible to determine the 
date with accuracy.'"^ 

The child was named Siddharta, but he is more frequently 

* For this and all other references, see the Appendix. 



2 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

mentioned in history either under his family name of Gautama, 
or under the appellation of Buddha, " the Enlightened " ; or, 
from the fact that he was of the race called Sakya, he is re- 
ferred to as Sakya-muni, " the hermit of the Sakyas." 

This prince, although handsome, strong, and heroic — sur- 
rounded by pleasures and tempted by the most brilliant worldly 
prospects/"' — took little part in the sports of his mates, and 
used frequently to retire by himself into solitude, where he 
seemed lost in meditation. '^^^ Educated in the belief that death 
was immediately followed by a new birth, and that all living 
creatures were chained to a never-ending series of transmigra- 
tions, he, as he grew in age, was more and more oppressed by 
the conviction that all is vanity, and that a man hath no profit 
of all his labour which he taketh under the sun. Possessed of 
wealth and power, and lacking no earthly good, but saddened 
by the knowledge that age must follow youth, and that death 
would soon put an end to all his possessions ; and believing that 
he must then commence a new life which death would again 
end, and that so for all eternity he must struggle on, being able 
to retain for but a moment all that seemed good to his eyes, and 
then being compelled to abandon it — the prospect thus stretch- 
ing out before him so appalled him that he finally determined to 
devote his life to the endeavour to find some escape from tbis 
eternal series of deaths. 

It was not for himself alone that he desired to find this relief, 
but for his dearly loved wife and infant child as well ; and, fur- 
thermore, his heart was filled with an anxious yearning to be the 
saviour of mankind, no matter what the cost to himself might be. 

Born at a time when tyranny and the oppression of the law 
of castes had become as intolerable in the civil world of India as 
the dogma of eternal metempsychoses had become in its relig- 
ion ; '^'' when woman was looked upon, as she still is in Oriental 
countries, as but the plaything of the stronger sex ; when 
throughout the world the citizens of each petty nation consid- 
ered all other tribes as barbarians or wild beasts — he, being the 
first of the human race '^^'^ to rise above the accidents of fate, 
looked upon all mankind as his brothers and sisters, and would 
fain save them all from the woe of the innumerable deaths that 
awaited them. High and low, bond and free, rich and poor, 
male and female, old and young, countrymen and foreigners, 



INTRODUCTORY. 3 

for all he felt the same tender pity, and no living creature was 
so mean as to be beneath his all-embracing love and sympathy. 

Filled with this anxious devotion, he stole softly away from 
his home by night, and adopted the life of a Brahmanical her- 
mit. For years he tortured himself, often fasting until life was 
almost extinct ; striving, vainly, but with an inextinguishable 
desire, to find the path which led away from eternal misery. 
Finally, light, as he believed, dawned upon him. Misery was ^ 
merely the result of unsatisfied desire. If all desire could be ^/ 
extinguished, unhappiness would perish with it. 

By sitting in a state of inward contemplation, it was possible 
to arrive at a condition of mind when, for a time, all surrounding 
objects would fade away and be forgotten. In this state of 
ecstasy, neither hunger nor cold nor any bodily want could be 
the source of discomfort, for the mind would be so fixed upon 
its meditation that it would not know that these existed. Be- 
yond this state, however, another condition could be reached, in 
which, after attaining to a forgetfulness of everything but self- 
existence, the abstraction would become so great that even the 
consciousness of self -existence would be lost. From this state of 
entire unconsciousness, a state neither of existence nor of non- 
existence, there would be no awakening forever. The dreary - 
round of transmigrations would be forever over with ; the 
dreamless sleep would never end. 

It was only after continual striving through myriads of ex- 
istences that this end could be reached, but he who set out upon 
the path to Nirvana would never turn back ; and ultimately the 
extinction of consciousness, which was held to be the supreme 
good, would be attained. 

There was only one thing of such importance that even the 
state of quiescence and meditation, which was the foretaste of 
the final beatitude, could be abandoned for it, and that was the 
desire to preach the glad tidings to others, that they too might . 
set out upon the happy path. The love of one's neighbours was^ 
recognized as the most sacred law, and it was to be only by the 
exercise of this virtue that it should be possible to reach the 
rank of the perfect Buddha.''^' As he himself had come for self- 
sacrifice, and only by surrendering himself had learned how the 
world might be saved, so all who desired to follow him must 
tread in these footprints. Charity and love must extinguish all 



/ 



4 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

egotism in the heart, and so fill the possessor with a spirit of 
devotion that he would surrender himself utterly, and forget 
everything personal, his own existence even, in order to save 
others.'«^« 

In the Chinese liturgy there is recorded a vow of the Bod- 
hisattva Kwan Yin — the Great Compassionate Heart, or Mercy — 
which is characteristic of this religion : * " Never will I seek or 
receive private, individual salvation ; never enter final peace 
alone, but forever and everywhere will I live and strive for the 
universal redemption of every creature throughout all worlds. 
Until all are delivered, never will I leave the world of sin, sor- 
row, and struggle, but will remain where I am," '*'* 

Buddha declared that the good news was for all the world ; 
and his disciples were commanded to hasten to preach it to every 
creature. " Let us part with each other," the legend reports him 
as saying, " and proceed in various and opposite directions. Go 
ye now and preach the most excellent law, expounding every 
point thereof, and unfolding it with care. Explain the begin- 
ning and middle and end of the law to all men icithout exce2> 
iion.""^^^^ "Since the doctrine which I proclaim is altogether 
pure, it makes no distinction between high and low, rich and 
poor. Like water it is, which washes and purifies all alike. 
It is like the sky, for it has room for all ; men, women, boys, 
girls, rich and poor."'*^- 

This command was faithfully obeyed by his disciples. Max 
Muller states '^^^ that at a very early period a proselytizing 
spirit awoke among the disciples of the Indian reformer — an ele- 
ment entirely new in the history of ancient religions. No Jew, 
no Greek, no Roman, no Brahman, ever thought of converting 
people to his own national form of worship. Religion was 
looked upon as private or national property. It was to be 
guarded against strangers. Here lay the secret of Buddha's 
success. He addressed himself to castes and outcasts. He 
promised salvation to all ; and he commanded his disciples to 
preach his doctrine in all places and to all men, A sense of 
duty, extending from the narrow limits of the house, the vil- 
lage, and the country, to the widest circle of mankind, a feel- 
ing of sympathy and brotherhood toward all men — the idea, 
in fact, of humanity — were first pronounced by Buddha. In the 
* See Bell's " Catena," pp. 405, 406, and 409. 



INTRODUCTORY. 5 

third Buddhist council, the acts of which have been preserved 
to us in the " Mahavanso," we hear of missionaries being sent to 
the chief countries beyond India. 

Some centuries after the days of Buddha, upon the death of 
Asoka, a powei*ful king of India, who had been an ardent devo- 
tee of the Buddhist faith, his immense empire was dismem- 
bered,'*** and, profiting by this opportunity, the Brahmans raised 
their heads, stirred up the smouldering hatred in the hearts of 
the castes that were formerly privileged, and by such aid recon- 
quered the land which they had lost, and commenced a war of 
bloody persecution against Buddhism, which resulted in the 
complete expulsion of that sect froni Central India. Ceylon, 
Burmah, Siam, and Gamboge gave them asylum. Some of the 
proscribed sect went even to the distant islands and founded a 
church in Java, which, judging from the ruins that still remain, 
must at one time have flourished. Others went to the north, 
were arrested by the deserts of Persia, and, after halting in 
Nepal, crossed the mountains, and carried their religion and 
their arts into China, whence they soon passed into Japan and 
Thibet. 

This religion was introduced into China about a. d. 66,"'^ 
and reached Corea in the year 372."** There is no part of 
Northern Asia to which it did not make its way. There is 
reason to believe that its missionaries penetrated into Europe. 
Mr. Leland mentions a Buddhistic image"" discovered in an 
excavation in London, at a depth of fifteen feet, nine feet of 
which consisted of loose soil or debris of a recent character, but 
the remaining six feet were hard, solid earth, of a character 
which indicated a probability that the image might have been 
left a thousand years or more ago where it was found. Profes- 
sor Holmboe has written a work '^^^ in which strong grounds are 
adduced for believing that Buddhist devotees reached Norway, 
or at least that part of Europe which was then occupied by the 
ancestors of the Norwegians of to-day. Professor Max Miiller "'' 
refers to the existence of Buddhism in Russia and Sweden, as 
well as in Siberia, and throughout the north of Asia, and says 
that a trace of the influence of Buddhism among the Kudic 
races, the Finns, Lapps, etc., is found in the name of their 
priests and sorcerers, the Shamans — " Shaman " being supposed 
to be a corruption of /iSrama^ia, the name of Buddha, and of 



6 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Buddhist priests in general. The suppression of the "r" is 
probably owing to the influence of the Pali, which shows a great 
delicacy/'* or, if the term is preferred, an extreme poverty, in 
the combinations of two or more consonants, and which always 
drops the letter " r " when it follows an initial consonant of a 
Sanskrit word.*" Thus, for instance,'*" the Sanskrit words 
"prakraraa" and "pratikrama" became in Pali "pakkama" and 
" pa^ikkaraa." 

It is a singular fact that this word " Shaman," applied to a 
priest or magician, is found, not only throughout nearly every 
part of Asia, but that it passed over into America so long ago 
as to become so thoroughly incorporated into the Yakut lan- 
guage of Alaska, that it and its derivatives were thought by Dall 
to have belonged originally to that language,"" and he claims 
that those authors who have thought it to be an (East) Indian 
word are mistaken. The religious ideas of some of the tribes of 
Alaska strongly point to an earlier knowledge of some more or 
less impure form of Asiatic Buddhism, and thus indicate that 
the word was really borrowed from the disciples of that faith, 
and is not a mere case of accidental resemblance in sound and 
meaning. Pinart -"^^ says that the belief in metempsychosis is 
generally spread abroad among the Koloches ; they believe that 
the individual never really dies, and that apparent death is but 
a momentary dissolution, the man being reborn in another form: 
sometimes in the body of a human being, and sometimes in that 
of certain animals, such as the bear, the otter, or the wolf ; of 
certain birds, such as the crow or the goshawk ; and of certain 
marine animals, but principally the cachalot. Veniaminoff, in 
his great work, commits an error in saying that the Koloches do 
not believe in any other form of metempsychosis than a change 
into the body of another human being. This purely human 
metempsychosis is not exclusive, although it predominates. 

Pinart also states that *"*' the primitive religion of the Ka- 
niagmioutes and the western Esquimaux in general appears to 
present an order of ideas much superior to those of the Koloches, 
or other American tribes. This religion, if the conjecture may be 
permitted, is the remains of a religious system now lost, but in- 
dicating a very elevated order of ideas. . . . They divided the 
heaven into five regions, superposed one upon another. . . . We 
find in these different heavens, as we rise from one to another. 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 

successive transformations and purifications. Each individual, 
if he lives an honoui'able life and conforms to their religious ideas, 
can rise to the highest of these heavens by means of these dif- 
ferent transformations. Every individual, in their belief, dies 
and returns to life five times, and it is only after having died 
for the fifth time that he quits the earth forever and passes into 
another existence. 

It can not be denied that these dogmas are strikingly analo- 
gous to those of the Buddhist faith, and, when added to other 
reasons for believing that this religion may have been preached 
in Alaska, the existence of these religious ideas, and of the Bud- ^ 
dhist designation for a priest, furnishes reasonable grounds for 
at least entertaining the question whether there was not some 
early communication of the Buddhists of Asia with America. 

Even at the present day, the Buddhist priests, or lamas, of 
Central Asia, are divided into three classes, comprising not 
Qjjjy.2093 ^j^g religious, who devote themselves to study and ab- 
straction, and become teachers and eventually saints, and the 
domestic, who live in families or attach themselves to tribes 
and localities, but also the itinerant, who are always moving 
from convent to convent, and traveling for travel's sake, often 
without aim, not knowing at all where they are going. Prin- 
sep says that there is no country that some of these have not 
visited, and that when they have a religious or partisan feeling 
they must be the best spies in the world. 

Hue also speaks ''^* of those lamas who live neither in lama- 
series nor at home with their families, but spend their timel 
vagabondizing about like birds of passage, traveling all over 
their own and the adjacent countries, and subsisting upon the 
rude hospitality which, in lamasery and in tent, they are sure 
to receive, throughout their wandering way. They take their 
way, no matter whither, by this path or that, east or west, 
north or south, as their fancy or a smoother turf suggests, and 
lounge tranquilly on, sure at least, if no other shelter presents 
itself by-and-by, of the shelter of the cover, as they express it, 
of that great tent, the world ; and sure, moreover, having no 
destination before them, never to lose their way. 

The wandering lamas visit all the countries readily accessi- 
ble to them — China, Mantchooria, the Khalkhas, the various 
kingdoms of Southern Mongolia, the Ourianghai, the Koukou- 



8 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

noor, the northern and southern slopes of the Celestial Mount- 
ains, Thibet, India, and sometimes even Turkestan. There is 
no stream which they have not crossed, no mountains they have 
not climbed. 

It should be remembered that the journeys of these wander- 

\ ing priests have been going on for more than two thousand 
years, and that, so far as known, no records of them have been 
preserved, except those which have been kept in China, and 
which will be mentioned a little farther on. Hence it is impos- 
sible to define the limits which they may have reached ; but, if 
it is shown that the journey to America, from some of the regions 
(such as that at the mouth of the Amoor River), which it is well 
known that they did reach, is neither longer nor more difficult 
than many of the journeys that they undertook, this fact will 
give reasonable ground for the conjecture that they may, in 
some one or more instances, have even extended their wanderings 
as far as to the American Continent. 

Mr. Leland, in his book, entitled " Fusang," "'^ embodies 
a long letter from Colonel Barclay Kennon, formerly of the 
United States North Pacific Surveying Expedition, in which the 
ease of the voyage from Northern Asia to Northern America is 
fully described. It is hardly necessary to quote additional au- 
thorities, for the fact mentioned by Mr. Bancroft,^"* that on the 
/shore of Behring's Strait the natives have constant commercial 
intercourse with Asia, crossing easily in their boats ; but the 
facts mentioned by Captain Cochrane,'"^* that two natives of a 
nation on the American Continent, called the Kargaules, were 
present at a fair held at Nishney Kolymsk, a town situated in 
Asia, on an island in the Kolyma River, and that large armies 
of mice'"" occasionally migrate from Asia to America, or in 
the other direction, make it evident that there is no great diffi- 
culty in the passage. 

Lewis H. Morgan calls attention to the fact that '^^' the Ja- 

•"^ panese Islands sustain a peculiar physical relation to the north- 
west coast of the United States. A chain of small islands — 
the Kurilian — ^breaks the distance which separates Japan from 
the peninsula of Kamtchatka ; and thence the Aleutian chain 
of islands stretches across to the peninsula of Alaska upon 
the American Continent, forming the boundary between the 
North Pacific and Behring's Sea. These islands, the peaks of a 



INTRODUCTORY. 9 

submarine mountain-chain, are thickly studded together within 
a continuous belt, and are in substantial communication with 
each other, from the extreme point of Alaska to the Island of 
Kyska, by means of the ordinary native boat in use among the 
Aleutian islanders. From the latter to Attou Island the greatest 
distance from island to island is less than one hundred miles. 
Between Attou Island and the coast of Kamtchatka there are 
but two islands, Copper and Behring's, between which and 
Attou the greatest distance occurs, a distance of about two hun- 
dred miles ; while from Behring's Island to the mainland of Asia 
it is less than one hundred miles. These geographical features 
alone would seem to render possible a migration in the primitive 
and fishermen ages from one continent to the other. But, su- 
peradded to these, is the g reat thermal ocean-curr ent, analogous 
to the Atlantic Gulf -Stream, which, commencing m the equato- 
rial regions near the Asiatic Continent, flows northward along 
the Japan and Kurilian Islands, and then, bearing eastward, di- 
vides itself into two streams. One of these, following the main 
direction of the Asiatic coast, passes through the Straits of 
Behring and enters the Arctic Ocean ; while the other, and the 
principal current, flowing eastward, and skirting the southern 
shores of the Aleutian Islands, reaches the northwest coast of 
America, whence it flows southward along the shores of Oregon 
and California, where it finally disappears. This current, or 
thermal river in the midst of the ocean, would constantly tend, 
by the mere accidents of the sea, to throw Asiatics from Japan 
and Kamtchatka upon the Aleutian Islands, from which their 
gradual progress eastward to America would become assured. 
It is common at the present time to find trunks of camphor- wood 
trees, from the coasts of China and Japan, upon the shores of the 
Island of Unalaska, one of the easternmost of the Aleutian 
chain, carried thither by this ocean current. It also explains 
the agency by which a disabled Japanese junk with its crew was 
borne directly to the shores of California but a few years since. 
Another remarkable effect produced by this warm ocean-current 
is the temperate climate which it bestows upon this chain of 
islands and upon the northwest coast of America. These con- 
siderations assure us of a second possible route of communica- 
tion, besides the Straits of Behring, between the Asiatic and 
American continents. 



10 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The "Histoire de Kamtchatka " '*^* mentions a report that a 
Japanese vessel was wrecked upon Kituy, one of the Kurile 
Islands ; and M. Pinart^"^* states that a number of Japanese 
junks, borne by the currents, and probably by the great Ja- 
panese current, the Knro-siwo, or " Black Stream," have been 
shipwrecked upon the Aleutian Islands — one such case having 
occurred in 1871 : thus showing that if a boat were merely 
allowed to drift with the current along the eastern shore of 
Asia, it would pass by the way of the Kurile and Aleutian Isl- 
ands, and, if not stopped by these, would soon drift to the 
American coast. 

It has already been mentioned that records have been pre- 
served in China of a number of journeys made by the devo- 
tees of the Buddhist religion. The "Encyclopaedia Britanni- 
ca"^^" gives the following list of clerical travelers, the accounts 
of which are now known to us, and adds : " The importance of 
these writings, as throwing light on the geography and history 
of India and adjoining countries, during a very dark period, is 
great." 

Shi Tao-^an (died a. d. 385) wrote a work on his travels to the 
" western lands " (an expression applying often to India), which 
is supposed to be lost. 

Fa Ilian traveled to India in 399, and returned by sea in 414. 

Hwai Seng and Su7ig Tim, monks, traveled to India to col- 
lect books and relics, 518-521. 

Hioen Tsang left China for India in 629, and returned in 645. 

To which should be added : 

" The Itinerary of Fifty-six Religious Travelers," compiled 
and published under imperial authority, 730 ; and 

" The Itinerary of Khi Nie," who traveled (964-976) at the 
head of a large body of monks to collect books, etc. Neither of 
the last two has been translated. 

The Rev. Mr. Edkins '"' says that both Fa Hian and Hwen 
Tsang will be admitted by every candid reader to deserve the 
reputation for patience in observation, perseverance in travel, 
and earnestness in religious faith, which they have gained by 
the journals and translations they left behind them. 

It should not be foi-gotten that these men were influenced by 
the same motives which actuate our Christian missionaries of 
recent times. They went, seeking not for glory or riches for 



INTEODUCTORY. H 

themselves, but either to preach their faith, in accordance with 
Buddha's command, in countries in which it was not known, or 
to meet their brethren in foi'eign lands, or that they themselves 
might obtain more complete information as to the details of the 
teachings of their master than they could find in their own 
country. Hence it may fairly be claimed that the accounts of 
these men, who braved all dangers from a devotion to their re- 
ligious duty, are entitled to far more than the ordinary degree 
of credit, and that their statements should be very carefully 
weighed before we undertake to reject them or to brand their 
authors as romancers. We can well afford the same degree of 
charity toward them that was shown by Sir John Maundevile '^''^ 
in darker days than our own : 

"And alle be it that theyse folk han not the Articles of oure 
Fythe, as wee han, natheles for hire gode Feythe naturelle, and 
for hire gode entent, I trowe fulle, that God lovethe hem, and 
that 'God take hire Servyse to gree, right as he did of Job, that 
was a Paynem, and held him for bis trewe Servaunt. And there- 
fore alle be it that there ben many dy verse Lawes in the World, yit 
I trowe, that God lovethe alweys hem that loven him, and serven 
him mekely in trouthe ; and namely, hem that dispysen the veyn 
Glorie of this World ; as this folk don, and as Job did also : 
And therf ore seye I of this folk, that ben so trewe and so f eythe- 
fulle, that God lovethe hem." 

With this prelude, as to the motives which have led the fol- 
lowers of Buddha to undertake numerous, difficult, and hazardous 
journeys to countries previously unknown, and as to the degree 
of credence to which their accounts are, as a rule, entitled, we 
come to the object of this book. 

There is, among the records of China, an account of a Bud- 
dhist priest, who, in the year 499 a. d., reached China, and stated 
that he had returned from a trip to a country lying an immense 
distance east. In the case of the other travelers to whom we 
have referred, the accounts which we possess of their journeys 
were either written by themselves or their followers ; but, in the 
case of Hwui Shan, the interest excited in his story was so great 
that the imperial historiographer, whose duty it was to record 
the principal events of the time*"" (each dynasty having its 
official chronicle concerning the physical and political features 
of China and the neighbouring countries '^''^), entered upon his 



12 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

official records a digest of the information obtained from this 
traveler as to the country which he had visited. It is this offi- 
cial record, or rather a copy of it, contained in the writings of 
Ma Twan-lin, one of the most celebrated scholars that the Chi- 
nese Empire ever knew, which is discussed in this work. 

It is certainly no more than reasonable to start with the pre- 
sumption that the account may be true, and that the story should 
not be i-ejected as false because of any slight difficulties, which 
further investigation might remove. 

All the reasons which lead us to accept the accounts of other 
Buddhist missionaries apply with equal force to this record, and 
we have, in addition, the fact that Hwui Shan succeeded in 
convincing the Chinese Emperor, and the scholars by whom he 
was surrounded, of the truth of his tale, and that he also ob- 
X tained the belief of the people of China and of all Eastern Asia 
so thoroughly that even now, after the lapse of some fourteen 
centuries, there is scarcely a man in China, Japan, or Corea, who 
does not have at least some slight knowledge of the account of 
the marvelous land of Fusang that was visited by him. The 
fact that he obtained such universal credence is certainly one of 
some weight. An impostor would not be likely to be so suc- 
cessful. Among those whom Hwui Shan convinced were many 
careful scholars and bright, intelligent men, who knew well how 
to weigh and sift evidence, and who would have found the flaw 
in his story if one had existed. 

It is the object of this book to show that the land visited by 
Hwui Shan was Mexico, and that his account, in nearly all its 
details, as to the route, the direction, the distance, the plants of 
the country, the people, their manners, customs, etc, is true of 
Mexico, and of no other country in the world ; such a multitude 
of singular facts being named, that it is inconceivable that such 
a story could have been told in any other way than as the result 
of an actual visit to that country. It is true that there are a few 
difficulties to be surmounted ; but the author believes that he has 
succeeded in removing a number upon which some of his prede- 
cessors have stumbled, and that the few that remain can not 
outweigh the immense volume of evidence that is presented as 
to the general truth of the account. 

After giving translations of all that is known to have been 
written in French or German upon the subject, and also includ- 



J 



INTRODUCTOEY. 13 

ing a full statement of substantially all that has been written 
about it in English (with the exception of Mr. Leland's book — *^ 
which the reader is recommended to obtain, if he has failed so 
far to do so, and if he finds the subject at all interesting), the 
original Chinese account will be given, with copies of the several 
translations that have heretofore been made, and with a new 
translation by the present author. Each statement made by 
Hwui Shan will then be carefully examined in connection with 
the histories of Mexico, to see whether the statement was or was 
not true of that country prior to the time of its conquest by the 
Spaniards. 

After a full discussion of his account, the histories of Mexico 
and other parts of America will be examined to determine, if 
possible, whether any traditions as to his visit, or any results of 
his teachings, still lingered in the country at the time when the 
Spaniards, more than a thousand years later, entered it, and 
whether any such coincidences were found in the civilization of 
these two regions of the world, in their customs, religious be- 
liefs, arts, architecture, etc., as to lead to a reasonable presump- 
tion that they may have had an early connection with each 
other. As it has been claimed that the country visited by Hwui 
Shan may have been located in some part of Jaj)an, its history 
will also be reviewed for the same purpose. The book will con- 
clude with a consideration of the question as to whether the 
Chinese had any earlier knowledge of Amei'ica, or any further 
information regarding it than that which Avas given them by 
Hwui Shan. 

The first detailed information which was given to European 
scholars, as to the existence of this account among the Chinese 
records, was afforded them in an article published by M. de 
Guignes, in the " Literary Memoirs extracted from the Registers 
of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres," Vol. 
XXVni, published in Paris in 17G1, and entitled " Investigation 
of the Navigations of the Chinese to the Coast of America, and 
as to Some Tribes situated at the Eastern Extremity of Asia"; '^'^ 
a translation of which article is given in the following chapter. 

It would appear, however, that de Guignes must have given 
some earlier account of his discovery of this relation, among the 
Chinese books which he had read in preparing for his great 
work upon the " General History of the Iluns, the Turks, the 



14 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Mongolians, and other Western Tartars," as (unless there is an 
error in the date) we find a letter written by the Pcre Gaubil '*"' 
to M. de risle, dated at Pekin, August 28, 1752, in which he 
mentions M. de Guignes's discovery of this account, but states 
his disbelief of the reliability of the Chinese works from which 
his translations were made. An extract from this letter is given 
in Chapter X. 

Philippe Buache,^"^ in a work entitled " Considerations Geo- 
graphiques et Physiques sur les Nouvelles Descouvertes au Nord 
de la Grande Mer," published at Paris in 1753, in which he cor- 
rectly advanced the opinion of the existence of the Strait of 
Anian (since called Behring's Strait), evidently borrowed from 
'de Guignes, when he stated that in the year 458 a colony of Chi- 
nese was established on the coast of California, in a region called 
Fusang, which he placed at about 55° north latitude. Her- 
vas,^"^ in commenting upon this statement, says that this colony 
has not been found, and that it is certain that none of the lan- 
guages which are spoken along that coast, between the forty- 
ninth and sixty-fourth degrees (a number of the words of which 
are to be found in the account of Cook's third voyage), have 
any close connection with the Chinese language. 

Alexander von Humboldt, in his "Views of the Cordille- 
ras,"""''^"* mentions a number of surprising coincidences be- 
tween the Asiatic and Mexican civilizations, of such a nature 
and of such importance as to lead him to the conclusion that 
there must have been an early communication between these 
two regions of the world ; but he makes no reference in this 
work to the history brought to light by de Guignes ; and in his 
"Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain" he says'^" 
that, according to the learned researches of Father Gaubil, it ap- 
pears doubtful whether the Chinese ever visited the western 
coast of America at the time stated by de Guignes. 

No further attention seems to have been paid to the subject 
until the year 1831, when M. J. Klaproth published, in Vol. 
LI of the "New Annals of Voyages," an article entitled "Re- 
searches regarding the Country of Fusang, mentioned in Chi- 
nese Books, and erroneously supposed to be a Part of Amer- 
ica,"'"' in which he took the ground that the country mentioned 
in the Chinese account was probably located in some part of 
Japan. A translation of this article is given in Chapter III. 



INTRODUCTORY. 15 

For some reason, which it seems difficult to explain, Klap- 
roth's assertions and assumptions (for of argument there is hut 
little, and that is partly based upon mistaken premises) seem to 
have been generally accepted as a settlement of the question. 

This did not deter the Chevalier de Paravey, however, from 
publishing'""' two pamphlets,™^' one in 1844 and the other at a 
somewhat" later date, in which he argued that the country of 
Fusang should be looked for in America, and not in Japan. 
Translations of these pamphlets are given in Chapters IV and V. 
De Paravey also published two other essays,'"'^ in which he at- 
tempted to prove that the natives of Bogota must have derived 
from Asiatic sources such partial civilization as they possessed.^"'^ 

The next to discuss the subject was Professor Karl Friedrich 
Neumann, who published his views in the " Zeitschrift fiir 
Allgemeine Erdkunde," Vol. XVI of the new series,"«« under 
the^'title of " Eastern Asia and Western America, according to 
Chinese Authorities of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Centuries." 
Mr. Leland published a translation of this opuscule in his book, 
entitled " Fusang," and a translation is also given in the present 
volume. Chapter VI. 

Since that time, articles upon the subject have followed each 
other so thick and fast that it is difficult to give a complete list 

of them. 

In 1850 Mr. Leland'"" published a resume of the arguments 
upon this subject, in the New York " Knickerbocker Maga- 
zine " ; and in 1862 this was republished, with additions, in the 
New York " Continental Magazine." In 1875 Mr. Leland pub- 
lished a much fuller work, entitled " Fusang, or the Discovery 
of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century." 
This treats the subject at much greater length than any other 
work, and hence it is impossible for the present author to do 
more' than refer to it ; but it adduces much new and valuable 
evidence as to the true location of Fusang, and well merits care- 
ful perusal. 

In 1862 M. Jose Perez'''' published a "Memoir upon the Re- 
lations of the Americans in Former Times with the Nations of 
Europe, Asia, and Africa," one section of which related to the 
knowledge of America possessed by the Chinese. 

In 1865"" M. Gustave d'Eichthal published a "Study con- 
■ eerning the Buddhistic Origin of American Civilization." 



^ 



16 AN INGLOPJOUS COLUMBUS. 

In the same year M. Vivien de Saint-Martin,"^^* in a chapter 
of his " Geographical Annual " for that year, entitled " An Old 
Story Set Afloat," combated the idea that the Chinese had any 
early knowledge of America. 

In 18C6 the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in the work en- 
titled "Ancient Monuments of Mexico,""^ argued against the 
views of the author of the "Geographical Annual." 

In 1868 Dr. A. Godron, President of the Academy of Sci- 
ences at Nancy, published, in the " Annals of Voyages of Geog- 
raphy, History, and Archaeology," '"' an article entitled " A 
Buddhist Mission to America in the Fifth Century of the Chris- 
tian Era." 

According to the " American Philological Magazine " for 
August, 1869, the Rev. N. W. Jones published in his " Indian 
Bulletin " an able argument to show that the Chinese Fusang 
was America. 

In the same number of the " American Philological Maga- 
zine " there appeared an article *'" upon the subject, by the Rev. 
Nathan Brown, under the heading, " Where was Fusang ? " 

In May, 1869, a letter upon the subject from Mr. Theos. 
Simson ^'"^ was published in the " Notes and Queries for China 
and Japan"; and in October, 1870, a letter by E. Bretschneider, 
Esq., M. D.,"* was published in the " Chinese Recorder and Mis- 
sionary Journal." Both of these letters were copied by Mr. Le- 
land in his work. 

At the first session of the International Congress of Ameri- 
canists, held at Nancy in 1875, M. Lucien Adam read an argu- 
ment against the identification of Fusang Avith America. 

These various articles, some of them more or less condensed, 
are, with the exception of the argument by the Rev. N. W. 
Jones (of which I have been unable to find a copy), given in 
Chapters VII to XI of this work. 

In 1876 M. the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Deny s published 
a "Memoir regarding the Country known to the Ancient Chi- 
nese by the Name of Fusang " ; '^^* but as his views, and the 
exceedingly valuable new material that he presents, are given 
more fully in his notes to his translation of Ma Twan-lin's work, 
entitled " Ethnography of Foreign Nations," and as, moreover, 
much of the " Memoir" is quoted by Professor Williams in his 
comments upon it, it has not seemed necessary to copy the " Me- 



INTRODUCTORY. 17 

moir" in this work. The substance of the notes upon the 
" Ethnography " is, however, given in Chapters XII and XIII. 

Mr. Bancroft, in his "Native Races of the Pacific States,'""^ 
gives Klaproth's translation of the story of Fusang, and com- 
ments briefly upon it. 

Professor S. Wells Williams presented to the American Ori- 
ental Society, on October 25, 1880, an article entitled "Notices 
of Fusang and Other Countries lying East of China," in which 
he urges some new grounds for adopting the conclusion of Klap- 
roth that Fusang should be decided to have been located in 
Japan. This article, slightly condensed, is copied in Chapter 
XIV. 

The last article on the subject is contained in the " Maga- 
zine of American History," for April, 1883, in which there is 
given a letter from the Rt. Rev. Channing M. Williams, refer- 
ring to the accounts of Fusang contained in the Shan Hai King, 
the Chinese classic of lands and seas. This will be found in 
Chapter X ; and a translation of all that portion of the Shan 
Hai King which relates to Eastern regions will be found in 
Chapter XXXV. 

An extract from the Introduction to the " Grammar of the 
Chinese Language," by the Rev. W. Lobscheid, ''^^ in which 
many singular coincidences are mentioned between the civiliza- 
tions of Mexico and China ; and some extracts from Mr. Pres- 
cott's " History of the Conquest of Mexico," in which he ex- 
presses his conviction of a connection between the civilizations 
of the two countries, are also given (in Chapter IX), as having a 
bearing upon the subject. 



CHAPTER 11. 

DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 

Chinese voyages — Knowledge of foreign lands — Work of Li-yen, a Chinese histo- 
rian — The country of Fu-sang — The length of the U — Wen-shin — Its identifi- 
cation with Jesso — Ta-han — Its identification with Kamtchatlia — The route to 
Ta-han by land — The country of the Ko-li-han — The She-goei — The Yu-che — 
Description of Kamtchatlia — The land of Lieu-kuei — The description of Fu- 
sang — No other knowledge of the country — The Pacific coast of North America , 
— A Japanese map — The Kingdom of Women — Its description — Shipwreck 
of a Chinese vessel — American traditions — Civilization of American tribes 
on the Pacific coast — The Mexicans — Horses — Cattle — The fu-sang tree — 
Mexican writing — Manner in which America was peopled — Similarity of cus- 
toms in Asia and America — Resemblances in the people — Charlevoix's story 
— Natives floated upon cakes of ice — The kingdom of Chang-jin — Voyages of 
other nations — The Arabs — Exploration of the Atlantic — The Canaries — 
Story of their king — The Cape Verd Islands — Conclusion. 

Investigation of the N^avigations of the Chinese to the Coast of 
America, and as to some Tribes situated at the Eastern Ex- 
tremity of Asia — by M, de Guignes.^"^ 

The Chinese have not always been confined within the bound- 
aries which Nature appears to have established to the country 
in which they dwell ; they have often crossed the deserts and 
the mountains which shut them in on their northern side, and 
sailed the Indian and Japanese seas which bound their kingdom on 
the east and the south. The principal object of these voyages has 
been, either commerce with foreign nations, or the intention to 
extend the limits of their empire. In these voyages observations 
have been made that are important, as well in regard to history 
as to geography. Several of their generals have rectified the 
maj)s of the countries which they reconnoitered, and their histo- 
rians have reported some details as to routes, bearings, and dis- 
tances, which can be made useful. 

In the enumeration of all the different foreign nations that 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 19 

the Chinese have known, it appears that some of them must 
have been situated easterly from Tartary and Japan, in a region 
which was included within the limits of the American Continent. 

A knowledge of this region of the world could have been 
obtained only by means of a cruise that is very remarkable and 
unusually daring for the Chinese — who have always been con- 
sidered as but mediocre sailors, hardly capable of undertaking 
long voyages, and whose vessels are constructed of so little 
strength as to be poorly adapted to resisting the hardships of a 
sail over a distance so great as that from China to Mexico. 
These voyages have appeared to me to be so important, and to 
have so intimate a relation with the history of the tribes of 
America, as to induce me to devote myself to collecting and 
placing in order all that could contribute to their elucidation. 

I intend this memoir to establish the voyages of the Chi- 
nese to Jesso, to Kamtchatka, and to that part of America which 
is situated opposite the easternmost coast of Asia. I dare flatter 
myself that these researches will be the more favourably received, 
inasmuch as they are novel, and rest wholly upon authentic facts, 
and not upon conjectures, such as those which we find in the 
works of Grotius, Delaet, and other writers who have investi- 
gated the origin of the American tribes. It is surprising to see 
that Chinese vessels made the voyage to America many centuries 
before Christopher Columbus — that is to say, more than twelve 
hundred years ago. This date, anterior to the origin and the es- 
tablishment of the Mexican Empire, leads us to inquire whence 
these nations, and some other nations of America, received that 
degree of civilization which distinguishes them from the barbar- 
ous tribes of the continent. 

Li-yen, a Chinese historian, who lived at the commencement 
of the seventh century, speaks of a country called Fu-sang, more 
than forty thousand li distant from China, toward the east. He 
says that, in order to reach it, one should set forth from the coast 
of the province of Leao-tong, situated to the north of Pe-hin, 
and that, after having traveled twelve thousand li, one reaches 
Japan ; that from that country, toward the north, after a voy- 
age of seven thousand li, the country of We7i-shin is attained ; 
that at a distance of five thousand li eastwardly from the last 
the country of Ta-han is found, from which Fu-sang may be 
reached, which is at a distance of twenty thoui^nd li from Ta- 



20 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

han. Of all these countries we know no others than Leao-tong^ 
a northerly province of China, the point of embarkation, and 
Japan, which was the principal halting-place for the Chinese 
vessels. The three other places at which they arrived in suc- 
cession are Wen-shifi, Ta-han, and Fu-sang. I shall show that 
the first must be understood as Jesso, and the second as Kam- 
tchatka, and that the third must be a country situated near Cali- 
fornia. But before examining this I'oute particularly, I wish to 
give an idea of the li which the Chinese geographers employed 
as the standard for measuring the distance between these places. 
It is very difficult to determine the true length of this measure. 
To-day, two hundred and fifty U make a geographical degree, 
which gives ten li to each French league of about three English 
miles. But the length of the li, like that of the French league, 
has varied under the different imperial dynasties and in the dif- 
ferent provinces of the empire. Pere Gaubil, who has made able 
researches concerning the astronomy of the Chinese, does not 
dare to attempt to prove the true length of this measure. He 
informs us that the majority of the scholars of the reign of the 
Han dynasty maintained that a thousand li, measured from the 
south to the north, gave a difference of an inch in the length of 
the shadow of an eight-foot hand of a sun-dial, when measured 
at noon. The scholars of later days have believed this deter- 
mination to be wrong, because they have been guided in their 
judgment by the measure of the li in use in the times in which 
they lived. If we cast our eyes upon the li adopted by the 
astronomers of the Liang dynasty, which flourished at the com- 
mencement of the sixth century, we find a material difference, 
since two hundred and fifty li, measured from the north to the 
south, give a similar difference in the length of the shadow. In 
order to judge of the distance of the countries by the statement 
as to the number of li between them, it is therefore necessary to 
know the length of the li at the time of the author. We may 
be assured that he has considered the length of this measure, and 
has giv.en the distances with precision. The difficulty in deter; 
mining the length of the li may be avoided by considering the 
report of the same author regarding two places that are well 
known. The distance which is reported from the shore of Leao- 
tong to the island of Tui-ma-tao is seven thousand li. In con- 
formity with the length of the li established by this distance, 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 21 

the twelve thousand li from Leao-tong to Japan terminate at 
about the center of the island, near Meaco, which is the capital, 
and which then bore the name of Shan-ching, or the City of the 
Mountain. Wen-shin, which is found seven thousand K from 
Japan toward the northeast, can not be anything else than 
Jesso, situated to the northeast of Japan, and at which the seven 
thousand li terminate. A Chinese historian, who has given us a 
very curious memoir concerning Japan, has furnished us with 
additional proofs. In speaking of the limits of this empire, he 
says that to the northeast of the mountains which bound Japan 
is placed the kingdom of the Mao-Jin, or of hairy men, and be- 
yond them that of Wen-shin, or the country of pa^w^ec? bodies, 
about seven thousand H from Japan. The first are the inhab- 
itants of Matsumai; the latter are their neighbours on the north, 
the people of Jesso, which, as a consequence, must be Wen-shin. 
This country, according to the Chinese historian, was made 
known about 510 or 520 a. d., its inhabitants having figures 
similar to those of animals. They traced different lines upon 
their faces, the form of which served to distinguish the chief 
men of the nation from the common people. They exposed 
their condemned criminals to wild beasts, and they deemed those 
innocent from whom the animals took flight. Their towns or 
villages were unwalled. The dwelling of the king was orna- 
mented with precious things. They added, again, that a ditch 
might be seen there which appeared to be filled with quicksilver, 
and that this matter, esteemed in commerce, became liquid and 
flowing when it had imbibed water from the rain. It was, for 
the rest, a fertile country, where all that is necessary to sustain 
life might be found in abundance. 

This description agrees with what we read in the accounts of 
those who have explored the island of Jesso. The Japanese, who 
were formerly sent there by an emperor of Japan, found hairy 
men there who wore their beards in the manner of the Chinese, 
but who were so rude and brutish that they would not receive any 
instruction. When the Hollanders discovered Jesso, in 1643, the 
same barbarians were living there that had been described by the 
Chinese and Japanese, and their country appeared to abound in 
mines of silver. But that which agrees the most remarkably 
with the account of the Chinese is, that the Hollanders found 
there a mineral earth which glistened in the sun as if it consisted 



22 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of silver. This earth, mixed with a very friable sand, they found 
where water had been placed. It is this which the Chinese had 
taken for quicksilvex*. These proofs, and the situation of Wen- 
shin, and its distance from Japan according to the Chinese 
writers, do not permit us to doubt that it must be the island of 
Jesso. At a distance of five thousand li from this country, toward 
the east, the ancient Chinese navigators found Ta-han. They 
declared that the inhabitants of this country had no military 
weapons ; that their customs were essentially the same as those of 
the people of Wen-shiyx, but that they had a different language. 
At almost exactly the distance of five thousand li, indicated 
by the Chinese, we find upon our maps the southern coast of an 
island which Don Jean de Gama discovered when going from 
Mexico to China. Because of the agreement as to distance, I at 
first believed that this coast was that of Ta-han ; but the details 
of the route which was taken to reach that country by land, a 
route which can not be reconciled with the island of Gama, which 
is said to be separated from Asia, has compelled me to seek else- 
where for the true location of the country, and to place it in the 
easternmost part of Asia. The statements of our navigators who 
have sailed these seas have contributed not a little to confirm me 
in this opinion. They have remarked that, in the route from 
China to California, they usually took the wind carrying them 
to the north of Japan and into the sea of Jesso, from which they 
sailed to the east, but that at the Strait of Uries the current car- 
ried them rapidly toward the north. Thus the Chinese, for the 
purpose of keeping close to the coast, have entered into the Strait 
of Uries, beyond which they have found a number of islands 
which extend as far as the southernmost point of Kamtchatka, 
where the five thousand li, the distance between Jesso and Ta- 
han, also terminate ; that is to say, they have reached the port of 
Avatcha, at which the Russians recently embarked, to attempt 
the discovery of the western coast of America, and whence they 
have taken the route of Captain Spanberg, who was commis- 
sioned by the Russian empress, in 1739, to reconnoitre the coast 
of Japan. But, in order to leave no doubt as to this point, 
I believe that we should be able to show by the route indi- 
cated by the Chinese author that Ta-han is more to the north 
than the place discovered by Gama, and that it forms a part of 
Siberia. 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVEEY. 23 

I shall not examine in full detail all the Tartarian tribes men- 
tioned by the Chinese historian, but shall confine myself to 
speaking only of those that are situated in the easternmost part 
of Asia, and shall devote myself to relating the customs of the 
inhabitants, so that they may be compared with those of the 
nations whom I place in America, and that it may be conclu- 
sively shown, by the differences which are found, that these last 
can not be placed in Kamtchatka. Moreover, this circumstantial 
account has seemed very interesting to me, because of the infor- 
mation that it gives in regard to the condition of Eastern Siberia. 

The Chinese travelers, who desired to reach the country of 
Ta-han, set forth from a city situated to the north of the "river 
Soang-ho toward the country of the Tartar Ortous. This city, 
which the Chinese called Chung-sheu-Mang-ching, must be the 
same as that which now bears the name of P'djotaihotun. The 
great desert of Shamo was then passed, and Caracorum was 
reached, which was the principal encampment of the Hoei-JcCy 
important Tartarian tribes, from which they came into the coun- 
try of the Ko-ll-han and of the Tu-po, situated to the south of 
a large lake, upon the frozen surface of which the travelers were 
obliged to cross. To the north of this lake, great mountains 
were found, and a country where the sun, says one, is not above 
the horizon longer than the length of time that it taJces to cooJc a 
breast of mutton. This is the singular expression of which the 
Chinese author makes use to describe a country situated very 
far to the north. The Tu-po, neighbours of the Ko-U-han, have 
their dwelling-places upon the south of the same lake. These 
people, who do not distinguish the different seasons of the year, 
shut themselves up in cabins made of interlaced brush-wood, 
where they live upon fish and birds and other animals which are 
found in their country, and upon roots. They neglect to feed 
herds, and do not apply themselves at all to the cultivation of the 
earth. The richest among them clothe themselves in the skins 
of sables and of reindeers, others being clad in birds'-feathers. 
They attach their dead to the branches of trees. They thus leave 
them to be devoured by wild beasts, or to fall from putrefaction, 
which is a practice also found among the Tunguses who live in 
the same country. 

Another Chinese historian informs us as to where we may 
look for the true abode of the Ko-li-hany which appears to us to 



24: AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

be the same as the country of the Kerhis or Kergis. He men- 
tions the rivers Obi and Angara under the names of 0-pu and 
Gang-ko-la. We must conclude from this that the lake placed 
to the north of the Ko-li-han is the famous Lake Baikal, which 
those who come from Russia, or from Siberia, to China, are 
obliged to cross upon the ice when they arrive there in winter. 
The Chinese employed eight days in crossing it. Less time is 
taken at present ; but it is still as dangerous as ever, because of 
the force of the winds and the abundance of snow. It follows 
from this account that the country of Ko-li-han is that of the 
Kerhis, a warlike people, who lived among the mountains, and 
who have been regarded as the ancestors of the Circassians, who, 
among themselves, call themselves Kirhez, and who live to the 
north of Georgia, where they have finally penetrated. The an- 
cient country of the Kerhis is situated in the provinces which 
we now call Selinginskoy and Irkutskoy, between the Obi and 
the Selinga. This is what it was necessary to determine in 
order to arrive at an exact knowledge of the route which led to 
Ta-han. Upon leaving the country of the Ko-li-han, one comes 
into that of the 8he-goei. These people are situated to the east 
of Lake Baikal and of the country of the Kerhis, upon the north- 
ern bank of the river Amoor. From the detailed description 
which has been preserved for us by the Chinese historians, it 
may be seen that these barbarians extended in the north of Siberia 
along the Lena River up to the neighbourhood of the sixtieth 
degree. This important tribe was divided into five principal 
hordes, which appeared as so many different nations. The first, 
called JSFaji She-goei, that is to say. Southern She-goei, were situ- 
ated to the north of the Tartarian JSFiu-che and Khi-tans, in the 
vicinity of the river Amoor, in a country marshy, cold, and ster- 
ile, where no sheep were raised, and where but few horses were 
found, but which produced swine and cattle in great numbers, 
and even a greater number of wild beasts, from which the in- 
habitants protected themselves with difliculty. The barbarians 
were clothed in hog-skins, and at the summer solstice they re- 
tired into the midst of the mountains. They had wagons cov- 
ered with felt, such as are used by the Turks, which were drawn 
by cattle. They built their cabins of wood, with some reeds. 
Their writing was by means of small pieces of wood, and the 
manner in which they disposed them expressed their different 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVEKY. 25 

ideas. He who wished to marry, commenced hy carrying 
away the destined bride by force, and afterward sent a present 
of cattle or horses to her parents. After the death of her hus- 
band, the laws of the country compelled the woman to pass the 
remainder of her life in widowhood, and the family continued 
the mourning for three years, as is the custom among the Chi- 
nese. The corpses of the dead were placed upon piles of wood 
and abandoned. The other branches of the same nation con- 
sisted of the She-goei of the north (which were called Po She- 
goei) and the Great She-goei. They were clothed in fish-skins, 
and had no other industry than fishing and hunting sables, and 
during the winters they retired into caverns. At the north of 
the last there lived another nation, whose excursions carried 
them to the Arctic Ocean. 

This ic the account given by the Chinese historians of the 
ancient inhabitants of the north of Asia, across whose country 
those who wished to go to Ta-han were obliged to pass. In fact, 
after having left the country of the She-goei and traveling east- 
ward for five days, the Yu-che are found, a people who derive 
their origin from the She-goei ; from there, after ten days' jour- 
ney toward the north, the country of Ta-han is reached, which 
is the terminus of the route which I have undertaken to exam- 
ine, Ta-han may be reached by sea also, as I have shown above, 
and by setting sail from Jesso ; from which we must necessarily 
conclude that the country of the Yu-che^ which makes part of 
Siberia, is situated toward the river Ouda, which discharges 
itself into the Sea of Kamtchatha, and that Ta-han, placed to the 
north of the Yu-che, is the easternmost part of Siberia, and not 
the island of Gama, which is entirely detached from the conti- 
nent, and is situated more to the south and nearer to Jesso. 

This part of Siberia, called Kamtchatka, is the region which 
the Japanese call OJcu-jesso, or Upper Jesso. They place it upon 
their maps to the north of Jesso, and represent it as being twice 
as large as China, and extending much farther to the east than 
the eastern shore of Japan. This is the country which the Chi- 
nese have named Ta-han, which may signify " as large as China," 
a name which corresponds with the extent of the country and 
to the idea which the Japanese have given us of it. But, ac- 
cording to the more detailed accounts given by the Russians, 
the country is a tongue of land which extends from north to 



26 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

south, from the Cape of Suetoi-noss as far as to the north of 
Jesso, with which several writers have confounded it. It is a 
part of Siberia which is separated from the rest by a gulf of the 
Eastern Sea, which runs from the south to the north. Toward 
the northern extremity it is inhabited by very savage tribes. 
Those who live in the southern part are more civilized, and have 
much in common with the Japanese, which has occasioned the 
belief that they were originally colonists from that country. It 
is probable that their commerce with the Chinese and Japanese, 
who traded upon their coasts, has contributed to render them 
more friendly and affable than those of the north, to whom these 
two civilized nations penetrated but very rarely. 

The southern part of Kamtchatka, or Ta-han, has also been 
known to the Chinese by the name of Lieu-Jcuei. Formerly, the 
Tartars who lived in the neighbourhood of the river Araoor 
reached the country after five days' navigation toward the north. 
The Chinese historian reports that this country is surrounded 
by the sea upon three sides, that the people dwell along the 
coast and in the neighbouring islands, and that they have their 
dwellings in deep caverns and woody thickets. They make a 
species of cloth from dog-hair. The skins of swine and reindeer 
serve for their clothing during the winter, and fish-skins during 
the summer. The weather of the country is cold, because of 
the fogs and snows which they have in abundance. The rivers 
are frozen over, and several lakes are found, supplying fish, which 
the people salt in order to preserve them. They have no knowl- 
edge of the division of the seasons. They love to dance, and 
wear their mourning-garments for three years. They have large 
bows, and arrows pointed with bone or stone. In the year 640 
A. D. the king of this country sent his sons to China. 

These long details have been necessary to arrive at an exact 
understanding of the situation of the country of Fu-sang, which 
is the utmost limit of the navigations of the Chinese. The fol- 
lowing is the description of it which their historians have pre- 
served for us. It was given by a priest who went to China in 
the year 499 a. d,, in the reign of the TsH dynasty : 

" The Kingdom of Fu-sang is situated twenty thousand li to 
the east of the country of Ta-han. It is also east of China. It 
produces a great number of a species of tree called /w-saw^, from 
which has come the name borne by the country. The leaves of 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 27 

the fu-sanff are similar to those of the tree which the Chinese call 
thinff. When they first appear, they resemble the shoots of the 
reeds called bamboos, and the people of the country eat them. 
The fruit has the form of a pear,- and inclines toward red in 
colour ; from its bark they make cloth and other stuffs, with 
which the people clothe themselves, and the boards which are 
made from it are employed in the construction of their houses. 
No walled cities are found there. The people have, a species of 
writing, and they love peace. Two prisons, one placed in the 
south and the other in the north, are designed to confine their 
criminals, with this difference, that the most guilty are placed in 
the northern prison, and are afterward transferred into that of 
the south if they obtain their pardon ; otherwise they are con- 
demned to remain all their lives in the first. They are per- 
mitted to marry, but their children are made slaves. When 
criminals are found occupying one of the principal ranks in the 
nation, the other chiefs assemble around them ; they place them 
in a ditch, and hold a great feast in their presence. They are 
then judged. Those who have merited death are buried alive 
in ashes, and their posterity is punished according to the mag- 
nitude of the crime. 

"The king bears the title of noble Y-ehi; the nobles of the 
nation after him are the great and petty Tui-lu and the ISfa- 
to-sha. The prince is preceded by drums and horns when he 
goes abroad. He changes the colour of his garments every year. 
The cattle of the country bear a considerable weight upon their 
horns. They are harnessed to wagons. Horses and deer are 
also employed for this purpose. The inhabitants feed hinds as 
in China, and from them they obtain butter. A species of red 
pear is found there, which is kept for a year without spoiling ; 
also the iris, and peaches, and copper in great abundance. They 
have no iron, and gold and silver are not valued. He who 
wishes to marry, builds a house or cabin near that of the maid 
whom he desires to wed, and takes care to sprinkle a certain 
quantity of water upon the ground every day during the year ; 
he finally marries the maid, if she wishes and consents ; other- 
wise he goes to seek his fortune elsewhere. The marriage cere- 
monies, for the most part, are similar to those which are prac- 
ticed in China. At the death of relatives, they fast a greater or 
less number of days, according to the degree of relationship, and 



28 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

during their prayers they expose the image of the deceased 
person. They wear no mourning-garments, and the prince who 
succeeds to his father takes no care regarding the government 
for three years after his elevation. In former times the people 
had no knowledge of the religion of Fo; but in the year 4.58 a. d., 
in the Sung dynasty, five priests of Samarcand went preaching 
their doctrine in this country, and then the manners of the peo- 
ple were changed." 

The historian from whom Ma Twa7i-lin has copied this rela- 
tion adds that there was no knowledge of the country of Fu- 
sang before the year 458 a. d., and, up to the present time, I 
have not seen any other than these two writers who speak of it 
with full details. Some writers of dictionaries, who have also 
made mention of it, content themselves by saying that it is situ- 
ated in the region where the sun rises. 

This account informs us that Fi-sang is twenty thousand li 
from Ta-han or Kamtchatka, a distance almost as great as that 
from the shore of Leao-tong to Kamtchatka. So, in setting forth 
from one of the ports of this last-named country, as that of 
Avatcha, and sailing eastward for a distance of twenty thousand 
li (which presents to us a great expanse of sea), the route termi- 
nates upon the westernmost coast of America, not far from the 
spot where the Russians landed in 1741. In all this vast waste 
of waters we do not find any land, not even an island, to which 
the distance of twenty thousand li could be applied, and we can 
not suppose that the Chinese had followed the coast of Asia and 
landed upon its most easterly extremity, and there found the land 
of Fu-sang. The excessive coldness of the weather which exists 
in Kamtchatka and the neighbouring northern regions renders 
them almost uninhabitable. The distance is far from sufficient, 
and the unfortunate inhabitants appear to be given over to 
barbarism, when their customs are compared with those of the 
people of Fc-sang. 

In vain we flatter ourselves that we know the western coast 
of America perfectly ; we know nothing of the country situated 
to the west and northwest of Canada. Our first geographers, 
from conjectures, as to the foundation of which we are ignorant, 
have prolonged the western shores of America so that they ap- 
proach Asia, supposing that they are not separated, otherwise than 
by a strait to which they have given the name of Anian. Fran- 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 29 

9ois Gualle, who endeavours to prove the existence of this strait, 
calls our attention to the changing of the currents and the waves, 
and to the whales and other Arctic fish that are found in the north- 
ern part of the Pacific Ocean ; but, since the publication of M. de 
risle's map of this part of the globe, we have learned the results 
of the explorations of the Russians, who, without giving us the 
contour of the coasts of America with precision, have made 
known to us, in general, that the coast of California trends toward 
the west and approaches quite near to that of Asia, leaving noth- 
ing between the two countries except a strait of small width, re- 
establishing the shape of the American Continent as it was given 
by the earliest geographers, apparently from a knowledge more 
exact than we have thought, and which has been lost to us. 

The Japanese, who have also cultivated the arts, and naviga- 
tion in particular, appear not to have been ignorant of the situa- 
tion of the counti'ies which lie to the north of their empire. 
Kaempfer claimed to have seen in Japan a map, made by the 
people of that country, upon which they represented Kamtchatka, 
which extends farther east than Japan. Upon the eastern shore, 
opposite to America, there is a gulf of a square form, in the mid- 
dle of which a small island is seen ; farther to the north a second 
may be perceived, which appears to touch the two continents 
with its two extremities. Upon a map which this celebrated 
traveler brought to Europe, and which has passed into the collec- 
tion of the late M. Hans Sloan, along the eastern coast of Kam- 
chatka a strait is seen, and beyond it a large country which is 
America. In the northern part of the strait is an island which 
extends toward the two continents. M. Hans Sloan has wished 
me to call attention to this curious map, and Mr. Birch, Secre- 
tary of the Royal Society of London, has sent me an exact copy 
of it. 

This map agrees quite closely with our old maps of America, 
and with the new discoveries of the Russians. No island is seen 
where M. de I'Isle has placed the coast which the Russians have 
discovered ; but, in the neighbourhood of this strait, America ap- 
pears to advance considerably, and to form a long tongue of land 
which extends nearly to Asia. I am led to believe that this coast 
must form part of the continent of America, from the fact that 
M. de I'Isle states that a large number of the inhabitants came 
to meet the Russians with boats similar to those of the Green- 



30 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

landers or Esquimaux, which indicates some relationship be- 
tween the people, and at the same time a connection of this land 
with America. In this case it is readily seen that the Chinese 
could I'each Fa-sang much more easily than would otherwise be 
possible, for they could follow the coasts almost all the way. 

I think that I have given sufficient proof that, at a distance of 
twenty thousand li from Kamtchatka, there is found a land where 
Fa-sang may be placed ; that this land is that of the continent 
of America, from which it results that Fu-sang is situated in this 
continent. The Chinese historians speak also of a country a 
thousand li farther east than Fa-sang. They call it the " King- 
dom of Women." But their account is filled with fables, similar 
to those which our first explorers have related concerning newly 
discovered countries. 

" The inhabitants of this kingdom are white. They have 
hairy bodies, and long locks that fall down to the ground. At 
the second or third month the women come to bathe in a river, 
and they become pregnant. They bear their young at the sixth 
or seventh month. Instead of breasts, they have white locks at 
the back of the head, from which there issues a liquor that serves 
to nourish their children. It is said that, one hundred days after 
their birth, the children are able to run about, and appear fully 
grown when three or four years of age. The women take flight 
at sight of a stranger, and they are very respectful toward their 
husbands. These people feed upon a plant which has the taste 
and odor of salt, and which for this reason bears the name of the 
' salt-plant.' The leaves are similar to those of the plant which 
the Chinese call Sie-hao, which is a species of absinthe." 

It is easy to perceive from this tale that, as is the custom in 
several places in the Indies, the women of the country nursed 
their children over their shoulders, and the fable reported above 
must have originated from this practice. 

We also find in the same authors that, in the year 507 a. d., 
in the reign of the Liang dynasty, a Chinese vessel, which was 
sailing the ocean, was driven by a tempest to an unknown island. 
The women resembled those of China, but the men had a figure 
and a voice like those of dogs. These people fed upon small 
beans, and had clothing made of a species of linen cloth, and the 
walls of their houses were constructed of earth built up in a cir- 
cular form. The Chinese could not understand their language. 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 31 

There is room for the belief that the beans that are mentioned 
are grains of maize ; and the Chevalier de Tonti, in his accounts 
of Louisiana, reports that the Taen9as, when speaking to their 
king, have the custom of making a great howling, by means of 
which they intend to show their respect and admiration for him. 
A similar practice among the people of the last-mentioned island 
may have led the Chinese to say that their voices resembled 
those of dogs.* 

We can not doubt at present that the Chinese had penetrated 
very far into the ocean tow^ard the south, sailing back and 
forth across it, and that, in consequence, they had sufficient 
boldness and experience in navigation to enable them to sail to 
California direct. The examination of the route which they 
took, and the distances which they have given, prove that they 
went there in the year 458 a. d. In fact, we find some traces 
of this commerce in our own accounts. George Home tells that, 
at the west of the country of the Epiceriniens, neighbours of the 
Hurons, there lived a people among whom there arrived foreign 
merchants who had no beards and who were carried by large 
vessels. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado states also that, at Qui- 
vira, vessels were found of which the sterns were gilded ; and 
Pierre Melendez, in Acosta, speaks of the wrecks of Chinese 
vessels seen upon the coast. It is also an unquestionable fact 
that foreign merchants clothed in silk formerly came among the 
Catualcans. All these accounts, added to those which we have 
adduced, become so many proofs that the Chinese traded at the 
north of California, near the country of Quivira. We may also 
notice, as a necessary consequence of such commerce, that, of all 
the American tribes, the most civilized are situated near the ^ 
coast which faces China. In the region of New Mexico there 
are found tribes that have houses of several stories, with halls, 
chambers, and bath-rooms. They are clothed in robes of cotton 
and of skin ; but that which is most unusual among savages is, that' 
they have leather shoes and boots. Each village has its public "^ 
criers, who announce the orders of the king, and idols and tem- 

* The Chinese geographers have also made mention of an island, called Kia-y, 
which is situated to the cast of Japan. In the year 659 some of these islanders 
came to China with the Japanese. The Japanese map, which has been sent to 
me by M. Sloan, places the island of Kia-y to the east of Japan and of Jesso, in 
the midst of twelve other smaller islands. 



32 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

pies are seen everywhere. Baron cle la Hontan speaks also of 
the Morambecs, who lived in walled cities situated near a great 
salt lake, and made woolen cloth, copper hatchets, and various 
other manufactures. Some writers have maintained that the 
civilized people situated to the north are the remnants of the 
Mexicans who took flight at the time when Hernando Cortez 
penetrated into Mexico, and who fled to the north and founded 
several considerable kingdoms, among others that of Quivira, 
Although this conjecture appears not to be devoid of some 
foundation, we read, nevertheless, in Acosta, that the Mexicans 
themselves, a long time before the Spanish invasion, came to 
Mexico from the north, which leads me to believe that the Chi- 
nese who landed in northern America had contributed to their 
civilization. The foundation of the Mexican Empire does not 
date back of the year 820 a. d., a time several centuries later 
than the navigations of the Chinese, of which the first occurred 
in 458. The people who inhabited Mexico before 820, and who 
bore the name of Chichhnecas, were savages, who retired into 
the mountains, where they lived without laws, without religion, 
and without a prince to govern them. About the year 820 the 
JVakuatalcas, a wise and civilized nation, came to Mexico, from 
which they drove the inhabitants, and there founded the power- 
ful empire which the Spaniards destroyed. The Nahuatalcas 
did not bring from the north the custom of sacrificing human 
victims. These barbarous sacrifices were not instituted until 
after their arrival in Mexico, and upon the occasion of a circum- 
stance which is related in full by Acosta. 

Before terminating this essay, it is necessary to make some 
remarks regarding the description of the country of Fu-scmg, and 
to reply to some objections that may be raised, particularly as to 
the occurrence of horses, which have not been found in any part 
of America. The great advantages which are derived from the 
possession of these animals would appear to be sufficient to in- 
sure their preservation. We observe upon this subject that all 
nations do not seem to have been equally persuaded of their use- 
fulness. Tartary, which is filled with horses, is near to Siberia, 
where, in several places, they have not been found at all, and 
where the dog or the reindeer is used instead. Nevertheless, 
horses could have been taken to these places— no difficulty, such 
as that of crossing the sea, preventing their transportation— and 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 33 

these tribes have known of them among their neighbours without 
having made use of them. Possibly the Chinese vessels formerly- 
carried a few of them to America, and some tribes then used 
them. But it is well known to what a point the savages of Amer- 
ica carried their cruelty toward conquered tribes. Their wars 
caused frequent migrations and the complete annihilation of 
several nations, and consequently the destruction of the usages 
which these exterminated tribes may have received by means 
of commerce. Finally, no one undertakes to guarantee all that 
is contained in the relations of Marco Polo, of Plan Carpin, and 
of Rubruquis. These ancient travelers have sometimes wan- 
dered from the truth ; and yet we can not, merely upon this" ac- 
count, sweepingly condemn all of their statements. The Chinese 
traveler may have allowed himself to be deceived by something 
that he saw, and may have applied the name of horses to certain 
animals of the country of Quivira and of Cibola, which resembled ^ 
them in size, and which the Spaniards have called sheep, on ac- ( 
count of the wool that they bear.* In the same way we have 
given the names of European animals to several animals of 
America, notwithstanding the fact that they are of a different 
species. In regard to the cattle mentioned in the account : since 
we have discovered the country of Quivira, Hudson's Bay, and 
the Mississippi, a sjiecies of cattle has been found with large 
horns, so that no difficulty remains regarding this point, and we 
may conclude that the Chinese navigators landed to the north 
of California, where they found these animals. 

A more exact description of the tree called fu-sang would 
contribute toward enabling us to determine the region more 
definitely. All that is said of it agrees rather with some tree of 
America than with any that occurs in the frozen land of Kam- 
tchatka; and the uses that are made of it, such as the manufact- 
ure of the stuffs, the cloth, and the paper spoken of in the 
account, appear to indicate a civilized people inhabiting a tem- 
perate country, such as that in the neighbourhood of California, 
rather than a country like Kamtchatka, the inhabitants of which 
retire into caverns, and are clothed in skins, and are too barbar- 
ous to make cloth or paper, or to have letters or true literary 
characters for the expression of their ideas — a thing unknown 

* " These animals," saya Acosta, " are of as great use to the Indians aa asses 
are among us, and are used to carry heavy burdens." 
3 



34 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

even to several nations in the southern part of Kamtchatka, 
who, as we have previously observed, are, from their southerly 
location, much nearer to China than Fii-smig can be supposed 
to be, if we locate it in the northern part of Kamtchatka, or any- 
where upon the northeastern coast of Asia ; in America, on the 
contrary, and particularly among the Mexicans, there is found a 
species of writing which consists not of alphabetical characters, 
but hieroglyphic characters or representations of ideas, such as 
the oldest characters of China were. 

Be it as it may, it is not my design to produce a multitude 
of conjectures as to the j)eople of Fu-sang and as to the Ameri- 
cans. I confine myself to that which appears to me to be sol- 
idly confirmed. The Chinese penetrated to a country very far 
from the shores of the Orient. I have examined the distances 
stated by them, and the length of the standard of measure used 
by them, and they have led me to the coast of California. I 
have concluded from this that they have known America since 
the year 458 a. d. In the countries near to the spot where they 
landed were found the most civilized nations of America. I 
have thought that they are indebted for their civilization to the 
commerce which they have had with the Chinese.* This is all 
that I proposed to establish in this essay. 

It is now easy to perceive the manner in which America has 
been peopled. There is much probability that several colonies 
have passed to it from the north of Asia, in the place where the 
two continents are the nearest together, and where a great island 
that extends from the east to the west, and which appears to 
unite them, renders the passage still easier. They may have 
reached it either by means of the ice, which in these seas some- 
times lasts two or three years, as we have seen examples in our 
own days, or by the help of the canoes in use among the Green- 
landers and other northern barbarians living in the easternmost 
part of Siberia. 

A certain agreement in the manners and customs which are 
found among the Tunguses and the Samoyedes with those of the 
tribes of Hudson's Bay, of Mississippi, and of Louisiana, adds a 

* George Home, 1, iv, c. 13, goes further. He affirms that the Mexicans are 
a colony of Chinese who came into America in 1279 a. d. with their emperor 
Tiamed Tipun, after the conquest of China by the Mongols. But this statement 
is erroneous, since Ti-pun with his fleet was swallowed up by the waters. 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 35 

new force to these reflections. It is known that in general all 
the nations of the same country are distinguished by peculiari- 
ties of countenance, and by an exterior, that proclaims their com- 
mon origin. Such are the Chinese, for example, who are easily 
recognized among other nations. The nations of Europe have a 
long and bushy beard, while that of the Chinese, the Tartars, 
and the people of Siberia is but slight ; in which point they re- 
semble the Americans, from which it might be inferred that 
these last came from Tartary. In examining the animals, we are 
compelled to make the same reflection. Several are found in 
America which are not met with elsewhere, except in the north 
of Asia— as the hairy cattle, and the reindeer, so common in 
Siberia and in the northern part of America. 

A number of additional facts can also be stated which con- 
firm the ease of the passage. We extract them from Charlevoix, 
who reports that Pere Grellon, after having laboured for some 
time in the missions of New France, went from there to China, 
and thence to Tartary, where he met a Huron woman whom 
he had known in Canada. She had been captured in war, and 
taken from one nation to another until she had reached Tartary. 
Another Jesuit, upon returning from China, related also that a 
Spanish woman from Florida, who met with the same misfortune, 
after having passed through extremely cold regions was finally 
met in Tartary. 

However remarkable these accounts may be, it is neverthe- 
less not impossible to reconcile them with geography. The 
women reached the shore of the sea that washes the western 
coast of America, whence they first passed by canoes to the 
island that is found in the strait, from which they landed upon 
the continent of Asia, and finally, taking the route from Ta-han, 
to which I have referred, they approached China. 

There is room for the belief that this is one of the ways by 
which America has been peopled ; but it is not at all likely 
that it has been the only one on the side of the north. Some 
among the writers who have investigated the origin of the 
Americans have made some conjectures upon the subject w^hich 
seem not to be destitute of foundation. At the mouth of the 
river Kolyma, in Siberia, is found a thickly peopled island, which 
is often frequented by those who come to hunt for the fossil 
ivory of the mammoth, which is more beautiful than that of the 



36 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

elephant, and is used for making different objects. They arrive 
there, with all their families, by crossing the ice, and it frequently 
happens that, surprised by a thaw, they are carried away upon 
large cakes of ice toward the opposite point of America, which 
is not very far distant. That which seems to give more weight 
to this conjecture is the fact that the Americans Avho inhabit this 
country have the same physiognomy as the unfortunate island- 
ers, who, from too great a desire for gain, expose themselves to 
the danger of thus being transported to a strange country. It can 
not be doubted that floating ice has sometimes carried men, and, 
even more frequently, animals, to neighbouring countries. Great 
cakes of ice, detached from more southerly lands, have been seen 
to arrive upon the coast of Iceland, laden with wood and with 
animals, of which the Icelanders take so great advantage that 
they neglect the interior of the island, and remain more willingly 
upon the coast, in order to be on hand to profit by them. It is 
in this manner that a number of ferocious animals have pene- 
trated into regions where men would never wish to have brought 
them. 

I conclude, from all these observations, that a part of Amer- 
ica has been peopled by the barbarians who inhabit the north of 
Asia. Adding also that the commerce of the Chinese has not 
only carried new inhabitants to them, but has also contributed 
much to the civilization of the American people, and to give 
them a knowledge of the most useful arts. And if, upon the 
evidence of the Japanese map, we place the kingdom of Chang- 
Ji?i to the south of the Strait of Magellanyj^t is certain in that 
case that the Chinese and the Coreans have known the southern 
part of America ; that their navigators have frequented it ; and 
that by this means they have civilized the Peruvians, among 
whom certain arts flourished, and who felt themselves not to be 
barbarians in anything. 

Other nations, less civilized than the Chinese, have also had 
means for reaching America no less easily at the south. Those 
who have populated the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, the 
Moluccas, and the Philippines, are connected with the inhab- 
itants of India and of China ; they have been from island to 
island in their canoes ; they have penetrated successively to New 
Guinea, New Holland, and New Zealand, immense countries of 
which we do not know the extent. In that way they have ap- 



DE GUIGNES'S DISCOVERY. 37 

preached the American Continent. Some of them may have 
reached the islands which are found between the tenth and twen- 
tieth degrees of south latitude — islands so near to each other 
that they form, as it were, a chain, which they could have fol- 
lowed. They have been peopled one after another, until those 
most distant from their original starting-point, and the nearest to 
America, have received their colonies. 

Perhaps the same reasoning might be applied to some parts 
of Europe. The British Islands, Norway, Iceland, and Green- 
land may have been the places of passage of American colonies, 
and, as these regions became more thickly peopled, some of the 
inhabitants would go to seek new and more distant habitations. 
But without stopping here to make conjectures regarding the 
navigation of the ancients, history furnishes us with a proof that 
civilized nations have attempted to discover new lands to the 
west of Europe, and to penetrate far into this vast sea. It is 
true of the Ai*abs. 

It is known that under the dynasty of the Ommiades these 
tribes made the conquest of a part of Africa. Thence, under 
the leadership of Tharic, they passed into Spain, which they re- 
duced to a province of their empire ; but after the Ommiades 
had been destroyed in Syria, a prince of that house escaped the 
general massacre made by the Abbassides, and fled to Spain, 
where he was proclaimed caliph, and founded a powerful mon- 
archy, which was destroyed by other princes coming from Africa. 
These possessed the greater part of Spain, until they were driven 
out by the Christians. It was during the reign of the Arabs in 
Spain that some of their sailors, setting sail from Lisbon, where 
they then were masters, embarked upon the gloomy sea or West- 
ern Ocean, with the intention of penetrating as far as they could 
toward the west, and of discovering the islands and lands which 
existed there. But their enterprise did not meet with the suc- 
cess with which they flattered themselves. After eleven days of 
navigation before a favourable wind, they found a thick sea, 
which exhaled a bad odor, where they met a number of rocks, 
and where the darkness commenced to make itself perceived. 
They were not so bold as to penetrate any farther. Making sail 
then to the south, they, after twelve days of navigation, ex- 
plored the Canaries, where they met a man who spoke Arabic. 
They traveled about among the islands, and landed upon one, 



y 



38 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

where they were stopped by the islanders. Questioned by the 
king of the country as to the object of their voyage, they an- 
swered him that their design had been to penetrate to the end of 
the world. The king informed them that his father had ordered 
some of his subjects to make the same attempt, but that, after 
having sailed the sea for a month without discovering anything, 
they had returned to the Canaries. These strange voyages of 
the Arabs, and particularly that of the inhabitants of the Cana- 
ries, cause us to suspect that others of the islanders, equally 
bold and more fortunate, may have reached America ; since they 
had the courage to abandon themselves, with their vessels, to the 
mercy of this vast sea, although they had no knowledge of the 
compass, and, as we regard them, were but little skilled in the 
art of navigation. 

Other Arabs, and the people of Senegal, knew also at the 
same time of the Cape Verd Islands. "We have not found in 
any writer that the Arabs penetrated any farther. Nevertheless, 
they approached at least this near to the lands of America, and, 
if they were not bold enough to sail directly to it, some of those 
who sailed the sea may have been carried by the tempests to the 
islands of the Azores, which are in the same degree of latitude, 
where pieces ©f wood and dead bodies from America are often 
found. It is this which gave birth to the belief of Christopher 
Columbus that there must be, and were, lands near the Azores. 

After this recital, we see that even the most barbarous people 
have had sufficient skill in the art of navigation to reach very 
distant islands, and, as a necessary consequence, to go even as far 
as to America ; but it is not my intention to exhaust the subject. 
We shall not be able to succeed in doing that until after we have 
obtained an exact knowledge of all the globe, and have discov- 
ered all the southern lands. I must stop with having collected 
the facts which are scattered in the Chinese geographies con- 
cerning the voyages of the Chinese in the South Sea and to 
America, and with having made, in consequence, some reflections 
concerning the passage of colonies to America. 



CHAPTER III. 

KLAPROTH'S DISSENT. 

Title of de Guignes's article incorrect — Translation of the account of Fu-sang — 
Vines and horses not found in America— Route to Japan— Length of the li 
—Identification of Wen-shin with Jesso— 7a-Aa?i identified with Taraikai or 
Saghalien— The route to Ta-han by land— The Shy-icei—Lieu-kuei—Fusang 
south of Ta-han instead of caat—Fu-sang an ancient name of Japan— Analy- 
sis of name " Fu-sang "—The paper mulberry— Metals— The introduction of 
Buddhism — Fantastic tales. 

Researches regarding the Country of Fu-sang, mentioned in 
Chinese Books, and erroneously supposed to be a Part of 
America. — By J. Klaproth}^" 

The celebrated de Guignes, having found in Chinese books 
a description of a country situated a great distance to the east 
of China, and thinking it probable that this country, called Fu- 
sang, must be a part of America, set forth this opinion in an 
essay read before the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, 
entitled " Investigation of the Navigations of the Chinese to the 
Coast of America, and as to some Tribes situated at the Eastern 
Extremity of Asia." 

It should be first observed that this title is incorrect. Noth- 
ing is said in the Chinese original, which de Guignes had before 
his eyes, concerning any voyage undertaken by the Chinese to 
Fu-sang, but, as is shown farther on, it is simply a question of a 
description of this country, given by a priest who was a native 
of it, and who had come to China. This notice is found in that 
part of the Great Annals of China * entitled Nan-szu, oV " His- 

* These are the Nan-eulszu, or the " Twenty-two Historians," of which the 
works form a collection of more than six hundred Chinese volumes, and which 
should not be confounded with the annals entitled Tung-kian-kang-mu, which 
are known in Europe by the meager extracts which P^re Mailla has given in 
twelve volumes, in 4°. 



40 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

tory of the South." After the destruction of the dynasty of 

'■ Tsiny in 420 a. d., China was overwhelmed with troubles, which 

resulted in the establishment of two empires, one in the northern 
provinces, the other in those of the south. The last was succes- 
sively governed, from 420 to 589 a. d., by the four dynasties of 
Sung, Ts'i, Liang, and Ch'in. The history of the two empires 
was written by Li-yan-cheu, who lived about the commencement 
of the seventh century. This is what he says about Fu-sang : 

" In the first of the years yung-yuan, of the reign of Fe-ti, of 
the dynasty of 2Yi, a shaman (or Buddhist priest), called Hoei 
>S/i^/^, arrived from the coimtry of Ft -sang at King-cheu.* 
He related what follows : Fu-sang is twenty thousand li to the 
east of the country of Ta-han, and equally to the east of China. 
In this country there grow many trees C2l\e^ fu-sang, \ of which 
the leaves resemble those of the t'ung {^Bignonia tonientosa), 
"S and the first shoots those of the bamboo. The people of the 
country eat them. The fruit is red and of the shape of a pear. 
The bark of this tree is prepared in the same way as that of 
hemp, and cloth and clothing are made of it. Flowered stuffs 
are also manufactured from it. Wooden planks are used for the 
construction of their houses, for in this country there are no 
^ cities and no walled habitations. The inhabitants have a species 
of writing, and make paper from the bark of the fu-satig. They 
have no weapons or armies, and do not make war. According 
to the laws of the kingdom, there are a southern prison and a 
northern pi-ison. Those who have committed crimes that are 
not very serious are sent to the southern prison, but great crimi- 
nals are shut up in the northern one. Those who may receive 
pardon are sent to the first ; those, on the contrary, to whom 
it can not be accorded are confined in the northern prison. | 
The men and the women who are shut up in the latter are per- 
mitted to marry each other. The male children, born from 
these unions, are sold as slaves at the age of eight years ; the 

* King-cheu is a city of the first order, situated upon the left side of the 
great Kiang, in the present province of Hu-pe. 

\ Fu-sang in Chinese, or, according to tlie Japanese pronunciation, Fouts-sok, 
is the shrub which we call " Hibiscus rosa Chinensis" 

X De Guignes has very badly translated this passage, as follows : " The most 
guilty are placed in the northern prison and afterward transferred into that of 
the south if they obtain their pardon ; otherwise they are condemned to remaia 
all their lives in the first." 



KLAPROTH'S DISSENT. 41 

girls at the age of nine years. The criminals who are confined 
there never come forth alive. When a man of high rank com- 
mits a crime, the people assemble in great numbers. They sit 
down face to face with the criminal, who is placed in a ditch, 
and regale themselves with a banquet, and take leave of him as 
of a dying man.* Then he is surrounded by ashes. For an 
offense of little gravity the criminal alone is punished, but for a 
great crime, the culprit, his sons, and grandsons are punished ; 
finally, for the greatest offenses his descendants to the seventh V^ 
generation are included in the punishment. The name of the 
king of the country is Y-k'i (or Yit-k'i).\ The nobles of the 
first class are called Tui-lu • those of the second, little Tid-lu ; 
and those of the third, Na-tu-sha. When the king goes forth, 
he is accompanied by drums and horns. He changes the color 
of his garments at different epochs. In the years of the cycle 
kia and y J they are blue ; in the years ping and ting, red ; in 
the years ou and M, yellow ; in the years keng and si^i, white ; 
finally, in those which have the characters jin and kuei, they 
are black. 

" The cattle have long horns, upon which burdens are loaded 
which weigh as much, sometimes, as twenty ho (of one hundred 
and twenty Chinese pounds). In this country they make use of 
carts harnessed to cattle, horses, and deer. They rear deer thei*e 
as they raise cattle in China, and make cheese from the milk of 
the females. Il A species of red pear is found there, which is 
preserved throughout the year. There are also many vines.* 

* De Guignes translates the last words by " He is then judged." 
f De Guignes has wrongly read " Y-chV 

X The years 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, and 51 of the cycle of sixty years bear the char- 
acter kia; the years 2, 12, 22, 32, 42, and 52 have the character y. 

Ping, 3, 13, 23, 33, 43, and 53; ting, 4, 14, 24, 34, 44, and 54. ^ 

Ou, 5, 15, 25, 35, 45, and 55 ; ki, 6, 16, 26, 36, 46, and 56. 

Keng, 1, 11, 27, 3*7, 47, and 67 ; sin, 8, 18, 28, 38, 48, and 58. 

Ji7i, 9, 19, 29, 39, 49, and 59 ; kuei, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60. •■ 

II De Guignes translates : " The inhabitants feed hinds, as in China, and from 
them they obtain butter." 

* In the original, To-p'u-t'ao. De Guignes, having decomposed the word 
p'u-t'ao, translates: "A great number of iris-plants and peaches are found 
there." Nevertheless, the word p'u alone never means the iris ; it is the name 
of rushes and other species of marshy reeds which are used for making mats. 
T'ao is, in fact, the name of the peach, but the compound word p'u-t 'ao, in 
Chinese, signifies the vine. At present, it is written with other characters — i. e., 



42 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Iron is lacking, but copper is found. Gold and silver are not 
esteemed. Commerce is free, and they do not haggle at all. 

" Their practices regarding marriage are as follows : He who 
desires to Aved a girl establishes his cabin before her door ; he 
sprinkles and sweeps the earth every morning and every night. 
When he has practiced this formality for a year, if the maid 
will not give her consent, he desists ; but, if she is pleased 
with him, he marries her. The ceremonies of marriage are 
nearly the same as in China. At the death of father or 
mother they fast seven days. At that of a grandfather or 
grandmother they refrain from eating for five days ; and only 
for three days at the death of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, 
and other relatives. The images of spirits are placed upon a 
species of pedestal, and prayers are addressed to them morning 
and evening.* 

" The king does not occupy himself with the affairs of gov- 
ernment during the three years which follow his accession to 
the throne. 

" Formerly the religion of Buddha did not exist in this coun- 
try, but in the fourth of the years ta-ming, of the reign of 
Iliao-icu-ti, of the dynasty of 8ung (458 a. d.), five pi-k'ieu, 
or priests, of the country of Ki-pin (Cophene), came to Fu-sang, 
and thsre spread abroad the law of Buddha. They carried with 
them their books and sacred images and the ritual, and estab- 
lished monastic customs,! and so changed the manners of the 
inhabitants." 

^ ^' ^"* t^^ Vflf ^^ *^*^ ancient orthography of the times of Han, which pre- 
vailed until the tenth century of our era. 

The vine is not a native of China, its seeds having been imported by the cele- 
brated General Chang K'ian, sent into the western country in the year 126 b. c. 
He traveled through the Afghanistan of our days, and the northwestern part of 
India, and returned to China after thirteen years' absence. The term p'u-t'ao is 
not native to China, any more than the object which it designates. It is probably 
the imperfect transcription of the Greek ^6Tpvs. The Japanese pronounce it 
bou-do. They usually give to the vine the name of yebi-kadzoura, composed of 
yebi, a sea craw-fish, and of l-adzoura, a general name of climbing plants which 
attach themselves to neighbouring trees. 

* De Guignes translates : " During their prayers they expose the image of the de- 
funct person." The text speaks of shin, or genii, and not of the spirits of the dead. 

f In the original, ^ {f}, ch'u-Tcia — that is to say, "to leave one's house or 
family," or " to embrace a monastic life." Dc Guignes has not translated this pass- 
age, with the exception of the beginning. 



KLAPROTH'S DISSENT. 43 

The circumstance that vines and horses are found in the 
country of Fu-sang is sufficient to prove that it could not be 
any part of America, these two objects having been brought to 
the continent by the Spaniards, after the discovery of Chris- 
topher Columbus in 1492. But other reasons, drawn from the 
Chinese books, explicitly oppose the supposition that Fu-sang 
should be identified with any part of the New World, We 
have seen, from the account of the priest Hoei Shin, that Fi- 
sang was twenty thousand li to the east of Ta-han. De Guignes 
has erroneously taken this last country for Kamtchatka. He 
bases this hypothesis upon another jiassage of the JVa?i-szic, in 
which the author says that, in order to go to Ta-han, the traveler 
sets out from the w'estern shore of Corea,* coasts along this 
peninsula, and, after having gone twelve thousand li, arrives 
at Japan ; that from there, after a route of seven thousand li 
toward the north, he comes to the country of Wen-shin, and that, 
five thousand li from the last, toward the east, the country of 
Ta-han is found, from which Fu-sang is distant twenty thou- 
sand li. 

In olden times the Chinese vessels which sailed to Japan 
crossed the Strait of Corea, passed before the isles of Tsii-sima 
(in Chinese, Tui-ma-tao), and landed in some port of the north- 
ern coast of the great island of Niphon. We must, therefore, 
conclude that the distance mentioned in the route much exceeds 
the reality. It should also be remembered that the ancient Chi- 
nese did not have any means of determining the length of their 
journeys at sea. Even if wfe admit the maritime li of the fifth 
century to have measured four hundred to the degree, the dis- 
tance of twelve thousand li of coasting between the mouth of 
the Ta-t'ung-Mang, in 38° 45' N. latitude, upon the western 
coast of Corea, and the middle of the coast of Niphon, upon 

* De Guignes translates the passage : " Sets out from the shore of the province 
of Zcao-tonff, situated to the north of Fckin." But, in the first place, this prov- 
ince is not to the north, but to the northeast of Pekin. Next, the Chinese text 
says that they set forth from the district of Zo-Ianff, which is situated not in 
Leao-hoir/, but in Corea, and of which the capital is the present city of P'in(f- 
jang (in d'Auville's map, Pinff-yang), situated upon the northern bank of the 
Ta-t'wig-kiang, or F'ai-shue, a river of the province of P'ing-7igan, which, in 
great part, in the time of the dynasty of Han, formed the district of Lo-lang. 
P'ing-i/ang wsxs the residence of K'i-tsu, the first Chinese prince who was estab- 
lished in Corea, about the year 1122 before our era. 



44: AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the Japanese Sea, is, nevertheless, more than twice too great ; 
the distance between the two points, in coasting, is not more 
than fifty-six hundred 11^ of four hundred to the degree. It, 
therefore, results that the li of the Chinese route measure about 
eight hundred and fifty to the degree. 

The same account estimates the distance between the Ja- 
panese port and the country of Wen-sJim as seven thousand li, 
or a little more than eight degrees of latitude. This distance 
conducts us, however, by following the contour of the coast of 
the Japanese Sea, exactly to the northern part of Niphon and to 
the southern point of the island of Jesso. The country of Wen- 
shin, or " Tattooed People," is, in fact, found there ; for the 
Ainos, who then occupied both the northern part of Japan and 
the island of Jesso, have even to this day the custom of painting 
the face and the body with different figures. 

The distance from the country of Wen-shin to that of Ta-han 
is, according to our account, five thousand li, or about six de- 
grees of latitude. This brings us exactly to the southern point 
of the island of Taraikai, erroneously called Saghalien upon our 
maps. The identity of this island with Ta-han is confirmed by 
another account, which describes the route from the northern 
part of China to the last-named country. 

In the times of the T'ang dynasty the Chinese had estab- 
lished three fortified cities to the north of the northernmost 
curve described by the Hoang-ho, which surrounded upon three 
sides the present country of the Ordos, called for this reason 
Ho-t'ao, or "Enveloped by the River." One of these cities, sit- 
uated between the two others, bore the name of Chung-sheu- 
Mang-ch'ing, or "the Central City, which Protects the Sub- 
missive People." It does not now exist, but its site, which can 
be determined with precision, was in the country now occupied 
by the Mongol tribe of Orat, upon the northern bank of the 
Hoang-ho. To go by land to the country of Ta-han, the trav- 
eler set forth from this city, and traversed the desert of Gobi, 
or Shamo, and arrived at the principal encampment of the Hoei- 
Jche, situated upon the left bank of the Orkhou, not far from its 
sources, and the same place where the Mongolians afterward 
constructed their first capital, Caracorum. From there he 
reached the country of the Ko-li-han and of the Tu-p'o, sit- 
uated to the south of a great lake, upon the ice of which he 



KLAPROTH'S DISSENT. 45 

must cross In winter. We know from other indications tliat the 
lake is that of Baikal. To the north of this lake, say the Chi- 
nese relations, high mountains are found, and a country where, 
says one, the sun is not above the horizon longer than during 
the little time that it takes to cook a breast of mutton. The 
Tu-po, neighbours of the Ko-li-han, inhabit the country to the 
south of the lake. Another historian informs us Avhat is the 
true abode of the Ko-li-han, and we know that this country is 
the same as the ancient country of Kirkis, or Kerghiz, situated 
between the 0-pu (the Obi) and the Ang-ho-la (the Angara). 
Upon leaving'the country of the Ko-li-han, and traveling to the 
east, we enter into that of the Shy-wei. 

The Shy-wei include a great number of tribes that do not 
appear to belong to the same nation, for the Chinese accounts 
mention several who speak a different language from that which 
the others use. Nevertheless, the greater part of the Shy-wei 
are of the same origin as the Khi-tan and speak their idiom, 
which is identical with that of the Mo-ho ; the latter are, to all 
appearances, the Mongols. The others belong to the Tunguse 
race. The most southerly Shy-wei live in the vicinity of the 
river Nou, an affluent upon the right of the upper Amoor. After 
having left the country of the Shy-tcei, who live to the east of 
the Ko-li-han and of Lake Baikal, and marching for fifteen days 
to the east, we find the Shy-wei called ^ jiW, Jii-che, who 
are probably the same people that other Chinese authors call 
W. ^Q' Ju-che — that is to say, the Djourdje, ancestors of the 
present Mantchoos. From there we advance for ten days 
toward the north, and enter into Ta-han, surrounded by the sea 
upon three sides. 

This country, called also Lieu-lcuei, therefore can not be 
other than the island of Taraikai, as we have already ascertained 
by following the route by sea laid down by Li-yan-sheu. De 
Guignes has wished to consider Kamtchatka as Ta-han ; but it is 
impossible to reach Kamtchatka from the eastern bank of Lake 
Baikal within thirty days, this time being barely sufficient to go 
across a country where there are no roads, from the eastern point 
of Lake Baikal, by way of the country of the Mantchoos and 
along the Amoor, to the great island of Taraikai, situated before 
the mouth of that river. 

The identity of Ta-han and the island of Taraikai, once 



46 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

demonstrated, prevents all further search for the country of Fa- 
sang in America. We have seen that the navigators, who went 
from the eastern coast of Corea to Ta-han^ traveled at first 
twelve thousand, then seven thousand, and again five thousand 
li, or in all twenty-four thousand U (or, according to our calcula- 
tion, twenty-nine and a half degrees of latitude), in order to reach 
that country. Fu-sang was twenty thousand U (or twenty-three 
and a half degrees) to the east of Ta-han or Taraikai, and so 
nearer by four thousand li than the latter country was to the 
eastern coast of Corea. If we adopt the letter of the relation, 
and seek for Fu-sang to the east of Ta-han, we fall into the great 
ocean, for the opposite coast of America in the same latitude is 
not less than four times as distant. 

We must therefore reject the entire tale as to Fu-sang as 
fabulous, or else find a means of reconciling it with the truth. 
This may be found by supposing the indication of the direction 
as toward the east to be incorrect. Now, the route by sea which 
conducts us to Taraikai indicates this as being the constant di- 
rection ; whereas the traveler at first goes to the south to double 
Corea, then, upon entering the Japanese Sea, he directs his course 
to the noi'theast, and finally changes this course for one more 
northerly, in order to follow the channel of Tartary to a point 
south of Taraikai. We may therefore presume that one sets sail 
from that country, and that at first one goes directly east, in order 
to pass the Strait of Perouse, by skirting the northern coast of Jes- 
so, but that, upon arriving at the eastern point of this island, the 
course turns to the south and leads us to the southeastern part 
of Japan, which was the country called Fu-sang. In -fact, one of 
the ancient names of this empire is Fi-sang {Hihiscus rosa Chi- 
nensis), and the Japanese books say that it was applied to their 
country because of its beauty. 

If we analyze the two syllables which compose the word "fu- 
sang," we find that the first, ^, fu, signifies " to help, to be use- 
ful," and that the second, ^, sang, designates the mulberry. The 
word therefore signifies, the useful mulberry. This circumstance 
leads me to think that there is some mistake in the Chinese ac- 
count preserved in the Nan-szu, and that it confounds the hibis- 
cus, or the " Rose of China," with the paper-mulberry {Morns 
papyrifera^, for the description of the tree in question applies 
rather to this last than to the hibiscus ; in fact, the bark of the 



KLAPROTH'S DISSENT. 47 

paper-mulberry furnishes to the Japanese all the productions 
which the Chinese account attributes to the true fu-sang. The 
bark is employed to make paper, stuffs, clothing, cordage, wicks, 
and several other useful things. 

Among the other productions of Fu-sang, as we have already 
remarked, the vine and the horse did not exist in America before 
the arrival of the Europeans, but they are found in Japan. The 
copper of this country is celebrated as an important article of/ 
export. Iron is, even now, rare in Japan, and consequently more 
valued than copper. According to mythological traditions, horses 
and cattle were produced from the eyes of the spirit Ouke-motsi- 
no-kami, and the other domestic animals issued from his mouth. 
As to the vine, it appears that that is older in Japan than in 
China, where it was not introduced until the second century be- 
fore our era ; for, according to the Japanese traditions, grapes 
were produced from a tress of black hair thrown down by Iza- 
naki-no-mikote, the last of the seven celestial spirits that reigned 
in the country. 

The single difficulty which remains is that which concerns 
the introduction of Buddhism. According to the Japanese 
annals, this religion was not diffused throughout the empire until 
552, the date that it was carried from Fiak-sai, or Fe-ts'i, a 
kingdom situated in Corea, to the court of the Dairi. Never- 
theless, as this belief had been introduced in 372 into the king- 
dom of Kao-li, or Ko-rai, and in 384 into Fiak-sai, and the Japan- 
ese had had intercourse with the two countries for a long time, 
it is not at all improbable that Buddhism had found disciples in 
Japan before the way into the palace of the Dairi was opened to it. 

Finally, I will call attention to the fact that the country of 
Fu-sang has furnished the Chinese poets with innumerable op- 
portunities for giving fantastic descriptions of its marvels. The 
authors of the Shan Hai King"^ and the Li-sao,\ as well as 
Hxoai-nan-tz, \ Li T'ai-pi, || and other writers of the same kind, 

* The Shan Hai King, the Chinese " Classic of Lands and Seas," is described 
in chapter xxxvi of this work. 

f The Li-sao is a celebrated poem written by Kiu Yuen in the third century b. c. 

\ Hioal-nan-tz is one of ten eminent writers of antiquity, who are associated 
together under the designation of the " Ten Philosophers." He was the grandson 
of Kau-ti, of the Han dynasty, b. c. 189. He wrote upon the origin of things. 

I Li T'ai-pi is one of the most popular of the Chinese poets. He lived during 
the reigu of the T'ang dynasty. 



48 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

have used them freely. According to them, the sun rises in the 
valley of Ycmg-ku, and makes his toilet at Fu-sang, where there 
are mulberries several thousand fathoms high ; the people eat the 
fruit, which' gives to their bodies the colour of gold, and endows 
them with the power to fly in the air. In an equally fabulous 
notice of Fu-sang, which dates from the time of the Liang dy- 
nasty, there is a statement that the silk-worms of the country 
are six feet long and seven inches in breadth ; they are of the 
colour of gold, and lay eggs of the size of swallows' eggs. I spare 
the reader the rest of these fables. 



CHAPTER lY. 

DE PARAVEY'S SUPPORT. 

America visited by Scandinavians— American tribes emigrants from Asia — An- 
cient Chinese maps — Researches antedating those of Klaproth — Letter of 
Pfere Gaubil — Ta-han — Lieit-kuei — Identification of these with Kamtchat- 
ka— Size of Fu-sanff—Vieyra of M. Dumont d'Urville— Length of the li — 
America lies at the distance and in the direction indicated — The Meropide 

of Elien The Hyperboreans — The monuments of Guatemala and Yucatan — 

The Shan-hai-khig — Identification of the fusang tree with the metl or ma- 
guey The Japanese Encyclopaedia says Japan is not Fusang — The banana or 

pisang tree may have been the tree called fusang — Grapes in America — 
Milk in America — The bisons of America — Llamas — Horses — Wooden cabins 
— The ten-year cycle — The titles of the king and nobles — The worship of 
images — Resemblance of pyramids of America to those of the Buddhists — 
An image of Buddha— The spread of the Buddhist religion — History of the 
Chichimecas — Resemblance of Japanese to Mexicans — Analogies of Asiatic 
and American civilizations pointed out by Humboldt — Credit due de Guignes 
— Appendix — Ma Twan-Un's account — The fiisang said to be the prickly 
poppy of Mexico — Laws punishing a criminal's family have existed in China — 
Chinese cycle of sixty years existed in India — Cattle harnessed to carts — The 
grapes of Fusang wild, not cultivated — Another Chinese custom in Fusang 
— The route to Ta-han— The route to Japan very mdirect — Priests called 
lamas both in Mexico and Tartary. 

America under the Name of the Country of Fusang — hy 
M. de Paravey.^^^^ 

The scholars of Iceland and Denmark have shown that the 
Scandinavians, long before Columbus, visited the northeastern 
portion of America, and there found wild vines and grapes ; 
and that they even penetrated to the south as far as to what is 
now known as Brazil. Before these modern researches, the il- 
lustrious Buffon, in his " Discours sur les Yarietes de l'Esp5ce 
Humaine," took the ground, as M. de Humboldt has also recent- 
ly done, that the tribes of Northwestern America,, and even. o£ 
4 



[y 



\ 



50 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Mexico, had come from Tartary and Central Asia ; and, relying 
upon the new discoveries of the Russians, he traced the route 
followed by the Asiatics, holding that they reached the north- 
western portion of California by way of Kamtchatka and the 
chain of the Aleutian Islands. Upon his side, M. de Guignes, 
examining the books of China, and by them throwing a light 
upon the origin of all European nations, found among them a 
very remarkable memoir regarding the country of Fu-sang, or the 
country of the Extreme East. He availed himself of the light 
thrown by the Russians and the latest geographers upon the 
extreme northeastern countries of Asia, and, in his scholarly 
work, he proved, as far as it was then possible to do so, that the 
country of Fu-sang^ known in the year 458 a. d., rich in gold, 
silver, and copper, but destitute of iron^ could be nothing else 
than America. 

All the maps, rough and purposely altered as to the size of 
foreign countries, that we have been able to find in the books or 
collections relating to China, and anterior in date to the exact 
maps of the Celestial Empire, which were finally made by the 
aid of the corrections of the missionaries at Pekin, show, in fact, 
to the east and northeast of China, beyond Japan, marked under 
one of its names, Ji ^,pen /^ ("Origin of the Sun"), a con- 
fused mass of countries, delineated as small islands, undoubtedly 
because they were reached by sea ; and among these countries, 
of which the size is purposely reduced, is marked the cele- 
brated country of Fu-sang y a country of which many fables 
have been related in China, but which, in the account translated 
by M. de Guignes, is presented in a light so entirely natural that 
it can not be considered otherwise than as one of the countries of 
America, even if it is not, as we think possible, intended for the 
entire Continent of America. 

We had not known of the old Chinese maps, drawn up so as 

to present Europe and all of Asia, outside of China, as very small 

' countries, until our visit to Oxford in 1830. We then cojiied 

them at the Bodleian Library, and our scholarly friend. Sir 

George Stanton, afterward gave us one of these imperfect maps. 

Upon returning to London, we there sought and found the 
Chinese text of the account translated by M. de Guignes ; for 
the woi'ks in which it is found are monopolized at Paris by cer- 
tain students of Chinese. We copied this text, and showed it to 



DE PAEAVEY'S SUPPORT. 51 

Mr, Huttman, then secretary of the English Asiatic Society. He 
recognized in it, as we did, a description of America, or of one 
of its parts, and, in the surprise which he felt, he communicated, 
probably, with M. Klaproth regarding our researches, for we were 
at London again when this Prussian scholar published, in the 
"Nouvelles Annales des Voyages," in the year 1831, a pretended 
refutation of the memoir of M. de Guignes, a refutation which 
he addressed to us, together with a letter of equal length, which 
we may some day publish. Neither this letter nor this printed 
article changed our convictions as to the justice of the views 
of the learned M. de Guignes. We declared them to M. Klap- 
roth, and, as he himself undoubtedly felt the feebleness of the 
arguments by which he had endeavoured to prove that this ac- 
count of Fu-sang should be understood to refer to Japan, he 
afterward, on this account, as we suppose, wishing to convert 
M. von Humboldt to his false ideas, caused the insertion, in 
Vol. X of the "Nouveau Journal Asiatique de Paris," of the 
letters of the late P^re Gaubil, in which this learned mis- 
sionary, without disputing this story, discusses the ideas of M. 
de Guignes, and, not knowing anything then of the maps of 
which we have spoken, appears to be unwilling to admit that 
America, under the name of Fu-sang, or under any other name, 
had been really known to the Buddhists or shamans of High 
Asia since the year 458 a. d. 

Since that time, however, we have endeavoured to prove, by 
an exact calculation of the distance in li, given in this account, 
translated from the Great Annals of China, regarding the country 
of Fu-sang y and by discussing the route traveled to reach it, that 
this country, even following the views of M. Klaproth and of 
Father Gaubil, concerning the Chinese names given to the coun- 
try so distant from Kamtchatka, could not be found elsewhere 
than in America. 

According to the shaman or Buddhist monk who made Fu- 
sang known to the Chinese in the year 499 of our era, this coun- 
try was at the same time to the east of China, and equally to the 
east of a semi-civilized land known in the Chinese books by 
the name of the country of Ta ^, Han ^, or of the " Great 
Hans," a name applied first to the Chinese dynasty of the Hans, 
founded in 206 b. c, after that of the Tsin. 

But, according to the Chinese accounts regarding this coun- 



52 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

try of Ta-han — which could be reached either by sea, by setting 
out from Japan and sailing to the northeast, or by land, by set- 
ting forth from the sharp bend toward the north which is made 
by the great river Iloang-hOy into the country of the Mongols, 
and passing to the south of Lake Baikal, and then, going the 
same distance to the northeast — this country, very distant from 
China, could not be any other than Kamtchatka, also called the 
country of Lieu-Jcuei, or "Place of Exile" {lieu, ^) "of the 
Vicious " (Jcuei, %), in other Chinese geographies. 

Father Gaubil, in these same letters, published by M. Klap- 
roth, admits this to be the country of Lieu-Jciiei, for it is said 
that the fact that this country is surrounded by the sea upon 
three sides, as Kamtchatka is, and the distance at which it is 
placed in the geography of the Tang dynasty, also published by 
this learned missionary, both agree in confining the land of 
Lieu-huei to this extreme point of northeastern Asia. It 
should also be noticed that M. Klaproth himself, in the memoir 
which we refute, when discussing the position of the country of 
Ta-han, declares that this land has also been called the country 
of Lieu-huei; and since, according to Father Gaubil, this 
place is Kamtchatka, the country of Ta-han must answer to the 
southern portion of Kamtchatka, and not to the great island of 
Saghalien or Taraikai, which is found at the east of Tartary, 
opposite the mouth of the Yellow River, the island in which M. 
Klaproth attempts to place it in his " Researches regarding Fu- 
sang.''^ 

It is, also, in Kamtchatka that the celebrated M. de Guignes 
places the country of Ta-han, which the Chinese books, such as 
the Pian-y-tien, the great "^Geography of Foreign Nations," a 
valuable work, of which a copy is possessed by the Royal Li- 
brary at Paris, represent as inhabited by barbarous men of great 
stature, and with hair very long and in wild disorder. 

And when the shaman Iloei Shin, coming from the country 
of JPlt-sang to China, and landing at King-cheu, in the prov- 
ince of JIu-pe, upon the left bank of the great river Kiang, 
said that ^^Fii-sang is at the same time to the east of China and 
to the east of the country of Ta-han,'''' or of Kamtchatka, it is evi- 
dent that he indicated a very great extension of this country of 
Fu-sang, from north to south ; since Kamtchatka, even in its 
most southerly part, is very distant to the northeast from China, 



DE PARAVEY'S SUPPORT. 53 

even from its northern boundary, and still farther from the river 
Kiang; he speaks, therefore, not of an island; not even of one 
as large as Japan; but of a continent of great extent, such as 
North America. 

So, when we had communicated the memoir of M. de Guignes, 
and its pretended refutation by M. Klaproth, to the celebrated 
navigator M. Dumont d'Urville, whose unfortunate loss science 
still deplores, this scholar, who, before his last voyage, had, in 
accordance with our advice, commenced the study of the geo- 
graphical books preserved in China, could not restrain a smile of 
pity upon seeing that M. Klaproth had, by main strength, at- 
tempted to change this vast continent into a simple province of 
Japan, a country which he himself points out under its true 
name, in another passage of the Great Annals cited by M. de 
Guignes, and where the route is described leading by sea from 
Corea to the country of Ta-han. In order to reach that region, 
the route touches the country of TFo, or of Japan, which was 
already well known to the Chinese in all its parts. The route, 
continuing toward the north, touches at the country of Wen-shin 
(the island of Saghalien) ; then turning to the east, Ta-han or 
Kamtchatka is reached, otherwise called Lieu-kuei. It is evi- 
dent that no other land than North America, east of Asia, is suf- 
ficiently large to be at the same time to the east of Central China 
and of Kamtchatka : this was not plainly said by M, de Guignes, 
but he evidently perceived it, and the distance also at which 
Fu-sang is placed from the country of Ta-han or Kamtchatka, 
in the account of the shaman, completes the demonstration. 

In fact, he stated this distance of Fu-sang easterly from Ta- 
han at twenty thousand li, and, as the length of the li has fre- 
quently been changed in China, M. Klaproth tries, by supposing 
the length to be very small, to make this distance reach only as 
far as Japan ! But, as the direction toward the east still incom- 
modes him and causes him to fall into the ocean, because of the 
admission which he makes that Ta-han must be the island of 
Saghalien, he without further ceremony changes this direction 
and turns it around toward the south ; and in this way, by add- 
ing one false supposition to another, he arrives at the conclusion 
that the southeastern part of Japan is this country of Fu-sang; 
again assuming that this country had been but recently discov- 
ered by the Chinese. 



64 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

But Father Gaubil, upon whom he otherwise relies, could un- 
deceive him and set him right as to the real length of the li. In 
his "Histoire de la Dynastie des Tang," a dynasty that reigned 
shortly after the epoch when the accounts of Ta-han and of Fu- 
saw^ were inserted in the Great Annals, he said that "fifteen 
thousand li are reckoned as the distance between Persia and the 
city of Sy-ngan-fu,^^ then the capital of China (see " Memoires 
concernant les Chinois," Vol. XV, p. 450). Persia is designated 
in these books as the kingdom of Posse, and its capital was 
formerly near Passa-garde and Shiraz or Persepolis. 

Now, toward the northeast, the geographies of the Ta7ig dy- 
nasty reckon fifteen thousand li also as the distance from Sy- 
ngan-fu to the country of Lieu-kuei (ib.. Vol, XV, p. 453) — 
which, according to M. Klaproth, is the same as the country of 
Ta-han — a country surrounded by the sea upon three sides, and 
which Father Gaubil asserts, as we have said, to be Kamtchatka. 

If, therefore, we set a pair of compasses upon a terrestrial 
globe, placing the points upon 8y-ngan-fu, then the capital of 
China, and Shiraz or Persepolis, the capital of Posse (or Persia), 
and then, keeping one point upon the first-named city, swing the 
other around to the northeast, it will be found to reach to the 
southern part of the land of Kamtchatka, thus proving the accu- 
racy of the stated distances. 

The length of the li during this epoch is therefore fixed ; 
hence, one third of the above-named distance represents five 
thousand li, and, adding this to the length of the fifteen thousand 
U above described, the distance of twenty thousand li, which the 
account of the shaman aflSrms as extending toward the east from 
the country of Ta-han to that of Fusang, from which he had 
come, can be reckoned with great accuracy. 

If, then, with the compasses we lay out upon the globe this 
distance of twenty thousand li, setting one point upon the south- 
ern end of Kamtchatka (which answers to the country of Lieu- 
Jcuei or of Ta-han), and swinging the other point toward the 
east, we should, if Fusang is America, reach at least the western 
coast of this new continent, a coast which, although long known 
to the Asiatics, has, by a sort of fatality, been the last to be ex- 
plored by Europeans. Now, in fact, this is just where the point 
of the compasses will reach, and this confirms both the conject- 
ures of Buffon and the assertions made by M. de Guignes, based 



DE PARAYEY'S SUPPORT. 55 

upon the very incorrect maps which were all that could then be 
obtained ; for the arm of the compasses thus reaches to a point 
north of the mouth of the Columbia River, not far from Califor- 
nia.* 

This scholar could not then arrive at the same precision that 
is possible for us, since, we repeat, the exact outlines of the 
northwest coast of America near the Aleutian Islands, and even 
those of the country of Kamtchatka, had not, in his days, been 
fully established ; but his merit was on that account even the 
greater, in being the first to recognize the true value of the li at 
that epoch, and to find, in the geographies of China, which had 
been so rarely consulted by European scholars, countries so un- 
known to us as Kamtchatka, and the vast American Continent; 
known from ancient times by the wandering tribes of Central 
Asia, but which have only recently been made known to us, by 
the admirable and persevering efforts of an illustrious genius. 

By the aid of the same books preserved in China, and which, 
unfortunately for Europeans, have not been translated, although 
we have possessed them for more than a century, we can show 
that the Meropide of Mien is North America ; for the invasion 
of the country of the Hyperboreans, of which this author speaks, 
can not have taken place elsewhere than from North America 
into Kamtchatka, and extending as far as to the banks of the 
great Amoor River, a region in which, according to the old 
Chinese books, there lived a multitude of tribes of which the 
names are scarcely known in Europe to this day, although very 
curious and all significant. 

From the most ancient times, having undoubtedly received 
colonies from Greece and Syria, these happy Hyperboreans sent 
to the temple of Apollo at Delos sheaves of the grain which 
they harvested. 

Herodotus and Pausanias name to us the nations which passed 
these offerings from hand to hand to Greece, and when to what 
we have said are added the accounts of the same nations which 
are given in the Chinese books, we can not avoid the conviction 
that the true land of the Hyperboreans — that is to say, of the 
tribes of the northeast — can not be situated elsewhere than 
upon the Amoor River, and in the neighbourhood of Corea, 

* In his later essay M. de Paravey corrects this statement, and names San 
Francisco as the point that is reached.— E. P. V. 



56 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

countries having an alphabet, and very anciently civilized or 
colonized. 

Through the Hyperboreans, in connection with the ferocious 
tribes of North America, tribes which Elien described under the 
name of Maxtfiog, or " Warriors," the Greeks of ancient times, 
who had carried the culture of the cereals to the banks of the 
Amoor, therefore obtained some knowledge concerning Fu-sang, 
or the Eastern World, that vast continent which, explored from 
the western side by the Phoenicians of Egypt, and afterward by 
the Carthagenians, received the name of Atlantis. 

The flowery imagination of the Asiatics embroidered with 
fables these accounts of a world so distant, and which could only 
be reached by incurring very great dangers ; but the curious 
monuments of Palenque in Guatemala, and those not less impor- 
tant which M. de Waldeck sketched in Yucatan, demonstrate 
positively the ancient relations between Central Asia, India, and 
Europe, and America, or Meropide, the true land of Fa-sang. 

The Shan-hai-hing, an old mythological geography of Chi- 
na, the Li-sao, and other Chinese books, relate fables also regard- 
ing the valley of Tang-Tcu, or of the Hot Springs, from -which 
the sun appears to issue ; it rises then in the country of Fii-sang, 
where the mulberries grow to a prodigious height. It is said 
that the people of Fit-sang eat the fruit of these mulberries in 
order to become immortal, that they can fly in the air, and that 
the silk-worms of these trees, enormous also, inclose themselves 
in cocoons of monstrous size. 

All these fables are founded upon the name sa7ig, M, of the 
mulberry, which enters into " Fi-sang," the Chinese name of 
America ; and this can be explained from an examination of the 
Mythriac monuments, sculptures of Eastern Asia, in which there 
may always be observed upon the right the sun rising behind a 
tree such as the mulberry. This is nothing else, in fact, than the 
representation of the hieroglyphic character preserved in China 
to express the Fast, a character which is pronounced tong, ^, 
and which is formed by drawing the symbol of the sun, Q Ji, be- 
hind that of a tree, /fCj ''^o / the sun in rising showing its disk, in 
fact, behiud the trees. 

Tacitus, in his " Germanicus," relates fables, also, in regard to 
the country where the sun sets, in explaining the sparkling 
when its fires penetrate the ocean ; but his admirable work has 



DE PARAVEY'S SUPPORT. 57 

been none the less constantly read and consulted since his time, 
and these marvelous tales have not caused the denial of the 
existence of the region of which he speaks. 

But the account of the shaman Hoei Shin regarding Fii-sang 
offers none of these fables ; and, if it places a tree of this name 
in America, it describes it as a plant having red fruit in the 
form of a pear, a shrub, of which the young shoots are eaten ; 
and of which the bark is prepared like that of hemp, of which 
cloth, clothing, and even paper are made : for the inhabitants 
of this country had a method of writing, says this account, and, 
in fact, books and a species of writing are found in America, in 
Mexico, and elsewhere. 

In the Chinese botanical books the name of fu-sang, which 
may be translated as "the serviceable, useful mulberry''^ (these 
adjectives conveying the meaning of ''/u"), is given now to the 
ketime, or hibiscus rosa sinensis, a plant brought from Persia to 
China, as we learn from Father Cabot, and which has been 
grafted upon the mulberry. 

But M. Klaproth, by some mistake, has been led to see in 
this plant the paper-mulberry, of which, in fact, cloth and cloth- 
ing are also made ; while others find in it the inetl or maguey of 
Mexico, but badly described ; for this plant also gives cloth and 
paper, it furnishes a sort of wine and food, and is pre-eminently 
useful. 

In truth, this name Fu-sang expresses only the name of the 
Extreme East, for in the ancient hieroglyphic geography the Cen- 
tral Kingdom is called, as it now is in China, Chong-hoa, or 
"the Central Flower," and the four cardinal countries have the 
name of the Sse-fu, or " the Four Auxiliary Countries," composed 
of the four principal petals of the nelumbo, the mystic flower, 
the flower of the middle, the sacred lotus, type of ancient Egypt 
and of the earth, 2')^''' excellence. 

India offers this geographical symbol to us again, and the 
ancient Chinese maps call the countries of the north, Fu-yu • 
those of the south, Fu-nan / those of the west, Fu-lin (that is to 
say, the Ta-tsin, the Roman Emi^ire) ; and, finally, those of the 
east, Fu-sang. Now, to the east of China there is no other ex- 
tensive land than America ; and, if Japan has ever been also 
given this name of Fu-sang, it is because it is to the east of 
China ; but the Japanese Encyclopaedia, which should have been 



58 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

consulted by M. Klaproth, who attempted to support his opinion 
by this name erroneously applied to this country, says that it is 
not the true country of Fu-sang. 

The banana, the pi-sang tree of the Malays, may also be 
one of the trees called fu-sang, for these trees, as well as the 
flowers of the nelumbo, or rose-lotus of Egypt, where the young 
Horus is seen to spring — that is to say, where the sun is born, 
are types of the East. All this, we repeat, is merely a natural 
series of symbols employed in the ancient and hieroglyphic 
geography, which is too little studied. 

The account translated by M. de Guignes also places many 
pu-tao, or grapes, in the country of Fu-sang. M. de Guignes 
translated the two characters separately, understanding pu to 
mean the iris, and tao the peach. M. Klaproth has properly 
rectified this, but with singular thoughtlessness he forgets that 
the forests of North America abound in several species of 
wild vines, and that the Scandinavians placed the country of 
Vin-land (the Land of Vines) in 'the northeastern part of the 
continent. He therefore denies the existence of the vine in 
America, and, relying especially upon this passage, he concludes 
that Fu-sang must be Japan, where the vine, as he says, had 
existed for a long time, although in China it had not been intro- 
duced from Western Asia until the year 126 before our era. It 
can therefore be seen how feeble his attempted refutation of M. 
de Guignes is, even when the last is mistaken ; and his memoir, 
as a whole, offers no more forcible arguments. 

When the shaman said that iron was lacking in Fh-sang, but 
that copi^er was found, and that gold and silver were not valued 
(because of their abundance, no doubt), he repeats what Plato 
said of Atlantis, and what has been reiterated in all accounts 
regarding America ; a celebrated river of the northern part of 
this continent bears the name of the Coppermine River, and 
copper is also very abundant in Peru. 

It is also stated that the inhabitants of Fi-sang raised herds of 
deer and made cheese from the milk of the hinds; and in the Chi- 
nese and Japanese Encyclopaedias, as also in the Pian-y-tien, 
when the figure of an inhabitant of Fu-sang is given, he is drawn, 
in fact, as engaged in milking a hind having small round spots, 
and in the two Encyclopaedias this is given as forming the char- 
acteristic peculiarity of this country of Fu-sang. Philostratus, in 



DE PARAVEY'S^ SUPPORT. 59 

his " Life of Apollonius," mentioned tribes in India who raised 
hinds for their milk, and the thing is not so common as to fail 
to be remarked, but herds of hinds have also been found in 
America in our days ; for Valmont de Bomare, in the article 
entitled " Deer," says : " The Americans have herds of deer 
and of hinds running in the woods throughout the day and at 
night re-entering their stables. Several tribes of America have 
no other milk," he adds, " than that obtained from their hinds, 
and of which they also make cheese." 

It appears, therefore, that he translates by these words what 
Hoei Shin said in 499 a. d. concerning the nations of Fu-sang ; 
and in calling attention to the fact that this usage formerly ex- 
isted in India, it was not without design, for the same shaman 
affirms that the religion of Buddha (an Indian religion) had been 
carried to the country of Fu-sang, in the year 458 of our era, by 
five monks of Ky-phiy or of Coph^ne, an Indian country. He ^ 
says that the tribes, from that time converted by them, had nei- 
ther military weapons nor troops, and, like the Argippeans (of 
whom Herodotus speaks), that they did not make war ; he adds, 
finally, that they had a species of writing and worshiped images 
— that is to say, that they were true Buddhists. 

That which is said regarding, the cattle with long horns that 
carried heavy burdens upon their heads, and of carts to which 
horses, cattle, and deer were harnessed, offers, as it appears, the 
only difficulty ; but the bisons with manes and with enormous - 
heads, found in North America, may have been the cause of this 
erroneous statement, and, but for the evasion of the description, 
the Chinese name Ma, which is applied to horses, asses, and 
camels, and which forms the radical of useful animals of this 
nature, might be given, even although it were wrongfully, to 
the llamas and alpacas already domesticated perhaps in South-- 
America, which also was included in Fu-sang. 

It maybe possible, moreover, that horses had been introduced 
before this epoch into Northwestern America, which is hardly 
known even in our days, and where tribes are mentioned which \ 
use them ; and where teams of reindeers, like those of Kam- 
tchatka, may also be seen. It is true that it has been supposed 
that these horses are descended from those brought to Mexico 
by the Spaniards ; but this has not been proved : and even if we 
suppose them to be of European origin, an epidemic or a de- 



CO AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

struct! ve war may, since the fifth century, have destroyed the 
domesticated horses brought to Fa-sang by the Tartars and the 
Buddhists of Asia. 

The people of Fa-sang had no other habitations than villages 
of wooden cabins, such as have been found near the Columbia 
River, to the northwest of California ; and, to obtain a wife, 
the young men of the country were obliged to serve their be- 
trothed for an entire year. Now (in the "Collection of The- 
venot"), this is precisely what Palafox says of the American 
Indians, whose manners he describes ; and this custom also ex- 
ists in the extreme northeastern countries of Asia, countries 
from which America may be reached, as we have said. 

Other details of their customs seem to be borrowed from the 
Chinese civilization, especially the cycle of ten years, or perhaps 
even of sixty years — as M. de Humboldt has in fact described 
among the Muyscas of the plateau of Bogota, in South America, 
the usage of the cycle of sixty years and of institutions analogous 
to those of the Buddhism of Japan. The cycle of Fa-sang^ bear- 
ing the names of the ten Chinese Fans, served to mark the suc- 
cessive colours of the king's garments, colours which were changed 
every two years, just as is prescribed for the Emperor of China 
by the chapter yue-Ung of the LiX-Jci, or "Sacred Book of Rites." 

But the so-called Chinese cycles, which gave their alphabets 
to the most ancient nations of Syria, Phoenicia, and India, as well 
as to those of Greece, as we have elsewhere shown (see our " Es- 
say upon the Common and Hieroglyphic Origin of the Figures 
and of the Letters," Paris, 1826; and the article, entitled " Jaj^an- 
ese Origin of the Muyscas," in the " Annales de Philosophic 
Chretienne," Vol. X, page 8, where the figures of the cycles may 
be found), may have been carried to Fa-sang quite as well from 
Central Asia, or from India, as from China, as they were never 
unknown to the Buddhists or shamans. 

We might also discuss the sound of the titles given to the 
king and nobility of the country of Fa-sang ; but these discus- 
sions would carry us too far, and we will merely call attention 
to the fact that the title of the king was I-hy, a sound which 
seems connected with the name of the Hic-sos, the pastoral 
kings of Egypt who came from Asia, and the last syllable with 
Ric, the name of the Gothic kings, who also came from the 
north of Asia ; and possibly also with that of Cacique, the title 



DE PAEAVEY'S SUPPORT. 61 

of the chiefs of the islands of America, and with that of the 
Aritcis, or kings of the islands of Oceanica. 

We will therefore confine ourselves to discussing the conclu- 
sion of this account of Fu-sang. 

" Formerly," says Hoei Shm, " the religion of Buddha did 
not exist in this country ; but in the Song dynasty (in 458 a. d. 
— a precise date here), five Pi-kieu, or priests of the country 
of Ky-pin (a country in which Father Gaubil sees Samarcand, 
and M. de Remusat sees the ancient Cophene, near India), came 
to Fu-sang, carrying with them their books and sacred images, 
and their ritual, and established monastic customs, and so 
changed the manners of the inhabitants." 

Accordingly, Iloei Shiii, a shaman himself, who came to 
China in 499, forty-eight years after this conversion of the peo- 
ple of Fi-scmg, declared that then the people of that country 
worshiped the images of spirits at morning and night and did 
not wage war. 

It is said that proselytism is one of the duties of the Bud- 
dhist priests and monks. It is therefore not surprising to see 
them set forth from Central Asia, and cross the seas and the 
most dangerous countries, in order to convert the savage tribes 
of America, a country already well known to them and to the 
Arabs and Persians of Samarcand. 

This can no longer be considered doubtful, since M. de Wal- 
deck has sketched an old temple or monastery of Yucatan, a 
large square inclosure accompanied by pyramids analogous to 
those of the Buddhists of Pegu, Ava, Siam, and the Indian Ar- 
chipelago, and which can be studied in all their details. 

A multitude of niches, in which the figure of the celebrated 
god Buddha sits with crossed-legs, exist in Java, all around the 
ancient temple of Boru Buddha ; and upon examination of the 
temple of Yucatan, of which M. de Waldeck has published 
beautiful drawings, we find there the same niches in which sits 
the same god Buddha, and also find other figures of East Indian 
origin, such as the frightful head of Siva, a flattened and de- 
formed head which surmounts each of these niches. 

We can not affirm, however, that these temples of Yucatan 
were as old as the account of Fu-sang, as we have no description 
of other buildings in this country than wooden cabins ; but, per- 
secuted by the Brahmans of India, the Buddhists may have been 



62 AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

compelled, at several different times, to seek an asylum in Fu- 
sang, or America, and possibly even went to Bogota and as far 
as to Peru, where the manners of the people have been found to 
be so gentle and so analogous to those of the Buddhists. 

In the same manner they civilized the wild tribes of the In- 
dian Archipelago, and of the countries between India and China, 
and built temples and pyramids such as those of which we find 
the remains, as in Java, or those which are still standing and 
venerated, as in Pegu and Siam. 

China received the Buddhist religion soon after the com- 
mencement of the Christian era, under Ming-ti, of the Han dy- 
nasty ; Corea in the year 372 a. d. ; Fu-sang, as we have said, 
in the year 458 ; and Japan, finally, not until 552, when the Japa- 
nese received it from Corea and from the kingdom of JPe-tsi, a 
land situated in the neighbourhood of the Amoor River and of 
Corea, and an ancient center of civilization. 

It is from Corea, say the Chinese books, that the country of 
Ta-han can be reached, from which, stalling to the east, one ar- 
rives at America — that is to say, at Fii-sang. On the voyage one 
touches at Japan, and, without doubt, sails along its shores in 
order to reach the island of Saghalien upon the north, from 
which the route turns to the east toward Kamtchatka or 
Ta-han. 

But in the curious " History of the Chichimecas," published 
in the collection of M. Ternaux, Ixtlilxochitl, the author, a na- 
tive American, says that the Toltecs came by sea from Japan 
to America, landing upon the northwest coast, and in a country 
having a red soil, such as that near the Gila River, where also 
an ancient monument is mentioned, called the House of Motecu- 
zuma. 

He had seen in Mexico the Japanese sent to Rome by the 
missionaries ; and in these modern Japanese he recognized the 
features and the costume of the Toltecs of whom he spoke ; 
now he fixed their migration in the fifth century of our era. 
He is therefore found to be in perfect accord with the Chinese 
accounts, concerning the different voyages to America ; for Ja- 
pan, as we have already said, is situated upon the route by sea 
from Corea to the country of Ta-han, the southern part of 
Kamtchatka, situated in a high latitude, and where, as it is said, 
the prevailing winds are from the west and the northwest, so 



DE PAPwAVEY'S SUPPORT. 63 

that they would naturally carry a vessel toward Fu-sang, or 
North America, a country situated to the east. 

The Buddhistic monuments of Yucatan ; the history that 
has been preserved of the migration of the Toltecs from JajDan 
to America ; the Chinese accounts of the country of Ta-han, 
and of the vast country of Fu-sang, which were given by the 
Buddhists who left this country of America, and arrived "at 
China by way of Japan : all are therefore in perfect accord. 
This passage, by way of Japan, explains, moreover, how, as 
we showed in 1835, in an article entitled " Dissertation sur les 
Muyscas," inserted in the " Anuales de Philosophie Chretienne," 
cited above, and also published separately, at Paris, under the 
title " Memoire sur I'Origine Japanoise des Peuples du Plateau 
de Bogota," the numerals and many words of the language of 
the Muyscas, a tribe living upon the plains of Bogota, are found 
also in the present language of the Japanese. 

Just as the Scandinavians, at a much later date, descended 
from the northeastern coast of the Xew World, and from Vinland, 
where they established a settlement, as far as to Brazil in South 
America, where their monuments have been found, so, a thousand 
years before the Spaniards, but landing upon the northwestern 
coast, the Buddhists of India (then persecuted by the Brahmans), 
the colonies of Japan and of the nations living upon the banks of 
the Amoor (the ancient country of the Hyperboreans), may have 
penetrated to Mexico, to Yucatan, to the country of Guatemala 
and to Palenque, to the kingdom of Cundinamarca, and finally 
to the rich and civilized kingdom of Peru. The celebrated M. 
von Humboldt has very well shown the connection of race, of 
civilization, and of cycles, manners and usages, which unites the 
tribes of these last countries to those of Tartary and of Asia ; 
but, by following Father Gaubil (to whom America was but little 
known) and M. Klaproth, in denying the identity of America 
with Fa-sang, he deprived himself of the most powerful argu- 
ments in support of his views, and could not fix any precise date 
for these migrations. 

We hope that, if be reads this short memoir, he will render 
more justice to the truth of the discoveries of the celebrated M. 
de Guignes, the profound sinologue from whose works M. Klap- 
roth drew a great part of his learning, and which, upon that ac- 
count, the latter should not so greatly traduce. 



6i AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

We have wished, in this brief extract from our researches 
regarding America, to render justice to this learned and mod- 
est author of the ** History of the Huns." As he was, so are 
we, oppressed by contemptible coteries ; but we hope that some 
day more justice may be shown to the researches which have oc- 
cupied our best years. 

Chevaliek de Paeavey. 

August, 1843. 



Appendix 



Gives M, KlaprotTCs article as far as the end of the translation of the 
Chinese account of Fu- sang ; and M. de Paravey adds the following 
additional notes : 

1. The celebrated Ma Twan-Un, so esteemed by M. E^inusat, has also 
given this account (of Fu-sang) in his Wen-hien-tong-Tcao, with some 
variations in the readings ; and it is this winch has been translated by M. 
de Guignes. It is also repeated in the celebrated Chinese Encyclopaedia, 
entitled Yuen-lcien-tui-han, in which we found it in London in 1830, 
and in the Pian-y-tien, or " Geography of Foreign Nations " ; and copies 
of all these highly esteemed works exist in Paris. 

2. M. de Paravey, in regard to the characters ^ ^ (Fu-sang), has 
observed that Father Gongalves, in his highly esteemed Portuguese- 
Chinese Dictionary, translated the name Fu-sang by Papula cornmla, the 
arg6mone, or prickly-poppy of Mexico. This learned missionary, there- 
fore, considered it a plant or shrub of America; and this single definition 
may be considered as proving that the country of Fu-sang corresponds to 
some part of Mexico. 

3. The laws of Fu-sang^ which punish the children and descendants 
of a great criminal, have existed in China from time immemorial, and also 
in the countries of Asia which are tributary to China. 

4. M. Klaproth recognizes the existence in Fu-sang of the Chinese 
cycle of sixty years ; but the researches of Father Souciet show that it 
existed also in India, and, in the " Journal Asiatique," of Paris, M. de 
Paravey has shown that it commenced in India and in China in precisely 
the same year. The Buddhists of India, or of the northern part of Cen- 
tral Asia, may therefore have carried it to the country of Fu-sang, in 
America, and to Mexico. 

5. In India, it is said, there are cattle which are harnessed to carts ; and 
in Kamtchatka there are reindeer, a species of stag, which draw sledges. 

6. In the text, M. Klaproth, in spite of all that he says in his foot- 



DE PARAVEY'S SUPPORT. 65 

note, should, as we Lave stated in our memoir, translate the words pu- 
tao (which he writes phou-thao) by "grapes," and not by the word 
"vines," which, among us, conveys the idea of culture. The woods of 
North America, in its northern and northwestern parts, abound in wild 
grapes, as the shaman says ; but cultivated vines were not found in Amer- 
ica, and the text, in fact, does not say that they were. 

7. The custom which required the king not to occupy himself with 
state affairs during the first three years of his reign was also an ancient 
custom in China and in Indo-Obina. 

8. In support of his ideas, M. de Guignes has translated another pass- 
age of the Nan-szu^ which gives the route by sea from Oorea to the 
country of Ta-han. M. Klaproth also translates this passage, which gives 
the distance from Ping-yang^ the ancient capital of Oorea, to Japan as 
12,000 li; from that country to the land of the Wen-s?iin as 7,00'0 li; 
and from the last-named region to the country of Ta-han, 5,000 li. 

In applying to this route by sea the same scale (as to the length of 
the li) which is found from the stated distance between Persepolis and 
Sy-ngan-fu, M. de Paravey found in fact that the distance between the 
mouths of the Amoor River, or the end of the island of Saghalien (which 
was the country of Wen-shin), and the southern part of Kamtchatka, or 
the land of Ta-han, is by this route 5,000 li; and he also found 7,000 li 
to be the distance between Yedo, the capital of Japan, and the mouths of 
the Amoor River. 

The description of the route is therefore exact in these two parts; and 
if it first states 12,000 li as the distance by sea between Japan and the 
capital of Oorea, situated upon its west coast (which is evidently too 
great a distance), it is because the route to Japan first led to the Lieu- 
Tcieu Islands, which are in fact situated 5,000 li from Japan and 7,000 
from Oorea: either this detour must be allowed, or else the length of the 
li must be regarded as very small ; but Ta-han is none the less in Kam- 
tchatka. And in all the hypotheses it is impossible that Japan, here de- 
scribed by its own name, and a country perfectly well known, could have 
contained Fu-sang, as M. Klaproth wishes to prove. 

9. A single word, when it is well chosen, amounts sometimes to a 
demonstration. In the Dictionary of the Language of Mexico, by the Pere 
Molina, a dictionary of which a copy is preserved in the British Museum 
at London, we have found that the word lama, or tlama, expresses the 
title of the " medicine-men " among the Mexicans ; and no one is ignorant 
that in Thibet and Tartary the lamas, or Buddhist priests, are at the 
same time the physicians of these countries (so little known) through 
which lay the route from India to Fu-sang. 

Chevalier de Paeavet. 
March 7, ISU- 
5 



CHAPTER V. 

DE PARAVEy's new PROOFS. 

De Paravey's researches preceded those of Neumann and d'Eichthal — Connection 
between the Malay and American languages — Fu-sang located near San Fran- 
cisco — Chinese picture of a native of Fu-sang — Spotted deer — Cattle-horns in 
Mexico — Horses — Nations of Northern Asia — Appendix A — Buddhist monu- 
ments in America — A figure of Buddha in Yucatan — The worship of Siva — 
The explorations of Dupaix — Foot-print in the rocks — The cause of eclipses 
— Pyramids — Appendix B — A Buddhist sanctuary near the Colorado River — 
The name Quatu-zaca — The Mexicans emigrants from the north — Appendix 
C — An engraving of a native of Fu-sang — The natives of Oregon — The deer 
of America — Connection of American and Asiatic tribes — Pearl-fishing — The 
cochineal insect and the nopal — The people of Coph^ne — American place- 
names which appear to contain the name Sakya. 

New Proofs that the Country of Fu-sang mentioned in the Chi- 
nese Books is America. 

To the Proprietor of the "Annales de Philosophie Chretienne " ; 
Sir : Until we have in France a minister who realizes the 
great importance of Persia, India, and China, and who will 
properly organize that Asiatic Society of which I, with Messrs. 
de Sacy and de Chezy, was among the founders ; until sufficient 
funds are given to the society to secure for it a building of its own 
and a librarian ; and until it is given as its i^resident a man who, 
like Lord Aukland, Director of the Asiatic Society of London, 
is able by his wealth and influence to unite and utilize all the 
educated Orientalists who now, divided among themselves, exist 
in Paris and in France — I shall take pleasure in contributing to 
your journal, because it is not submissive to any commission 
or any coterie, as has been well shown during the seventeen 
years of its existence, and as is shown, again, by its publication 
of my various essays, very imperfect, as I well know, but which, 
as a whole, will some day form a mass of facts as novel as posi- 



DE PARAVEY'S ^^:W PROOFS. 67 

tive. With your sound judgment you have appreciated the 
force of my " Description of the Origin of the Letters," of which 
the " Journal Asiatique," of Paris, has never had a single word 
to say, but which the celebrated Dr. Young approved and upon 
which M. Princeps is engaged. 

In 1844 vou published my " Dissertation upon American 
Fu-sano-." You have also carefullv criticised the articles re- 
garding the East which M. Mohl has been giving for some 
years past in the "Journal Asiatique," and I thank you for 
having called attention, in a note to the article of 1845, to 
the fact that I had also discussed the delicate and important 
question regarding the location of the celebrated country of 
Fu-so.ng. M. Walcknaer has told me that M. Remusat trans- 
lated the Chinese texts regarding Fii-sang for him. I do not 
know whether or not M. Walcknaer, that erudite geographer, 
has expressed any opinion upon the subject ; neither do I know 
what the learned Viscount of Santarem thinks about it : but that 
which I do know, and which I ask you to publish, is that M. 
Xeumann, quoted by M. Mohl, did not publish his dissertation 
at Munich in 1845 until after having seen me at London in 
1830-31, upon his return from China, and after having learned 
from Mr. Huttman, then Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Lon- 
don, that I was engaged upon an extensive work upon this 
account of Fa-sang, of which I had found the Chinese text in 
England, the copy at Paris being taken by M. Klaproth. 

It is the same regarding M. d'Eichthal, quoted by M. Mohl. 
At the Asiatic Society (September, 1840) and at the Geographi- 
cal Society also, in the same year, M. d'Eichthal heard a note 
which I read regarding this country, and saw the transcript 
which I presented of the figures of Buddha and of Siva, first 
recognized by me in the beautiful work of M. de "Waldeck upon 
the ruins of Uxmal in Yucatan. You yourself then saw the dif- 
ferent drawings and designs, and M. Bumouf, Jr., recognized, 
like me and after me, the figures of Buddha and of Siva. 

How could M. Mohl have been ignorant of these facts, so well 
known at that time ? How could he have given M. d'Eichthal 
the credit without mentioning me ? I do not know. Neither 
could I have known of the memoir of M. d'Eichthal or the dis- 
sertation of M. Xeumann, which date only from 1845, while my 
articles were published in your journal in 1843 and 1844, and I 



68 AN IJTGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

am tlie first to pray you, sir, to translate or criticise their argu- 
ments ; for tbe subject is, as I repeat, very important. 

Bernardin de Saint Pierre, in his " Harmonies de la Nature," 
had already indicated the migrations toioard the east of the 
nations of India and of Oceanica, arriving thus at America to 
the north of Peru ; and M. the Admiral de Rossel, the celebrated 
navigator and courteous and loyal scholar, has mentioned the 
Sandwich Islands as the ancient half-way port between India, 
China, and America, a theory Avhich is renewed in this day. 

M. de Saint Pierre, in his " Etudes de la Nature " (Eleventh 
Study, and Note 49, edition of 1836, first volume), has spoken also 
of numerous points of connection found by a very old author 
between the Malays and the Peruvians ; and my numerous ex- 
tracts from the " Dictionary of the Quichua Language of Peru," 
a dictionary of which a copy is preserved in the Royal Library 
at Paris, have confirmed these points of connection Avith the Ma- 
lay spoken at Java. M. d'Eichthal has therefore entered upon a 
good road ; but I have the priority, and M. de Avezac, to whom 
I have often spoken of these matters, may have conversed with 
him also and described to him my studies. 

You speak here of my " Dissertation upon Fu-sang," which, 
before it was printed, was the inciting cause of M. Klaproth's 
article in 1831, as I have shown in my memoir. Permit me, sir, 
to correct that dissertation by some new and very important 
notes. I said that the ships of Kamtchatka, constructed in that 
place by the Buddhists, who came there from Cabul, carried 
them to America near the mouth of the Columbia ; but I wrote 
then far from my books and without a terrestrial globe, and I 
therefore examined the matter again in 1844, and found that I 
had placed the point of their arrival a little too far north. 

The beautiful work of M, Duflot de Mofras .upon Oregon 
(Paris, 1844), a work which I have read and analyzed, conducts 
me to the excellent port of San Francisco, to the south of the 
Columbia River, as the point of arrival of the Indian Buddhists 
of Cabul. 

According to the scale of 15,000 U, reckoned by the Chinese 
between Persia and the city of Sy-ngan-fii, and also reckoned 
between this city and the southern point of Kamtchatka or of 
Ta-hmi, the distance of 20,000 li between Kamtchatka and Fu- 
sang, measured upon a terrestrial globe, reaches precisely to this 



DE PARAVEY'S NEW PROOFS. 69 

point ; and M, de Mofras says tbat the northwestern winds which 
prevail at San Francisco during a great part of the year would 
bring one there easily from the northeastern coast of Asia. 

There, ships enter without difficulty, while the bar at the 
mouth of the Columbia is very difficult to cross, at least for 
large vessels. Still, this natural entrance to the beautiful coun- 
try of Oregon may also have been known of old. 

In the figure of the half- clothed, half-civilized American 
of Fu-sang, which is given in the ^^ Pian-y-tien" and also in 
the Chinese Encyclopaedia, this native is seen milking a young 
hind with white spots, and her fawn is equally spotted. I 
sought in vain for any account of this kind of spotted deer in 
America, until, upon re-reading M. von Humboldt's works, I 
noticed that the Cervus Mexicanus of Linnoeus is spotted like 
our European roe-deer, and that the spots are particularly notice- 
able while the animal is young. This species of deer is found in 
America, and in Mexico in particular, in immense numbers, says 
M. von Humboldt, as well as a large deer similar to ours, and 
often entirely white ; a deer which is found in the Andes, where 
it also runs in herds. These last, therefore, recall the white and 
tame hinds which are milked by the Indians of the Himalaya, 
as we are told by Philostratus in his "Life of Apollonius of 
Tyane," for these people, being Buddhists, deprive themselves of 
meat, and live upon fruits and dishes made from milk. 

The account of Fu-sang speaks also of cattle with very long 
horns, that are domesticated by the natives of that country. 
Now, M. von Humboldt says that the bisons of Canada are 
often broken to the yoke and that they breed with our Euro- 
pean cattle. 

These bisons weigh as much as two thousand pounds or 
more, but their horns are small ; whereas he says that cattle- 
horns of a monstrous size have been found in ruined monuments 
near Cuernavaca, in the southwestern part of Mexico. He refers 
these horns to the musk-ox of the extreme north of America ; 
but M. de Castelnau, in his courageous exploration near the 
Amazon and in Paraguay, found cattle with very long horns, 
besides another species with small horns, which ran with them 
in the same plains. 

The account of Fc-sang is therefore confirmed upon this point ; 
but there is certainly some error in the text when it is said that 



70 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

upon these long horns the cattle carried a weight of twenty ho 
(the Chinese " ho " being a weight of one hundred and twenty 
pounds) — that is to say, a total weight of twenty-four hundred 
pounds ! It should be said that they weighed, per head, at least 
twenty-four hundred jjounds, and not that this enormous burden 
was placed upon their horns ; that would be impossible. 

The horses mentioned in this account seem alone to have 
been lacking in America ; but the Patagonians, true Tartars, are 
always on horseback, and there is nothing to prove that they had 
not preserved among them some descendants of the horses which 
the bonzes of India brought to Fii-sang, and which the boats of 
Kamtchatka had perhaps taken from Tartary. 

I will give you some day an article about the tribes of the 
extreme north of Asia, having large boats and very short nights 
during summer. 

A hundred times wiser than M. Klaproth, M. de Guignes, Sr., 
in his memoir regarding Fu-sang, by a few words referred to 
this nation with large boats, and of whom the name Jvu-tu-moei 
— that is to say, " Having the Nights very short in Summer "— 
indicates the position to be near the Arctic circle. 

There is an account of this nation in the work of Ma Twan- 
lin, entitled " Wen-hien-tong-Jcao,''^ and I have extracted what 
he says upon the subject. 

I have shown elsewhere that the passage from Europe to 
America by the way of Northern Siberia must then have been 
practicable, this sea being gradually filled up with the detritus 
of great rivers which fall into it, and in this way it freezes more 
and more each year, for it is known that deep seas do not freeze. 
All these facts open new and important questions, and your use- 
ful and weighty journal may well treat them. 

Accept, etc., Chevaliee de Pakavet. 

Saint Germain, April 24, 1S47. 



DE PARAVEY'S NEW PROOFS. 71 



Appendix A. 

IN EEGAED TO THE MEMOIR OF M. d'eICHTHAL MENTIONED BY M. MOHL. 

Proof given in I84O of the Introduction of the Worship of Buddha into 
America hy Means of the East Indians of Cabul. 

To the President of the Academy of Sciences : 

Did certain bonzes of India, setting forth from Central Asia, in the 
year 458 of our era, go to America by the way of Kamtchatka and the 
northwestern part of the New World, in order to convert the nations that 
lived there, and of which the existence has been known ever since? 

This is what is affirmed by the learned M. de Guignes, Sr., in the 
"Memoires de I'Academie des Inscriptions," where he has given a trans- 
lation of the account of the voyage of these East Indian bonzes, taken 
from the Great Annals of China. 

This has been since denied by M. Klaproth and M. von Humboldt, who 
base their opinion upon some doubts expressed by the scholarly Father 
Gaubil, who had not sufficiently studied the question. I desire to state 
my reasons for answering this question in the affirmative. I have no 
doubt upon the subject, since discussing it with the learned Admiral M. 
de Rossel, and exhaustively studying the memoir of M. de Guignes con- 
cerning the navigations of the Chinese to the celebrated eastern land 
which they called the country of Fu-sang^ and which they placed some 
two thousand leagues to the east of the shores of their empire and of 
Tartary. But as neither my mere assertions nor those of others should 
receive any more favourable consideration than has been given to the ex- 
cellent work of M. de Guignes, Sr., and as the Academy of Sciences wishes 
facts rather than words, I will call attention to the monuments of a portion 
of Central America, hitherto almost unknown, at least in regard to its an- 
tiquities; monuments to which I have already called the attention of the 
Asiatic Society of Paris, of M. Burnouf, Jr., and of M. the Chevalier Jaubert, 
and which they have agreed with me in recognizing as purely Buddhistic. 

M. the Baron van der Cappelen, living near Utrecht, Holland, has 
shown me large drawings of the temple of Boro-Boudor in Java, brought 
from India by him. This ancient temple is circular, and is ornamented 
with thousands of small, beautiful niches, in which the figure of the cele- 
brated Indian god Buddha sits cross-legged, each niche being surmounted 
by the monstrous and deformed head of Siva. 

I could show the same idols in ancient Egypt, and at Axum, in Abys- 
sinia ; but, in looking over the beautiful work of M. Waldeck, the skillful 
artist and distinguished disciple of Da\nd, who was sent to Yucatan by the 
generous and unfortunate Lord Kingsborough, I was surprised to see upon 
the sketch of the southern facade of the vast square palace of the ruins of 
Uxmal, near Merida, eight niches of the Indian Buddha, figured seated 



72 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

as in Java, in the East Indies, and with the face decorated with coarse rays 
surrounding it, and to see in addition a monstrous and flattened human 
head surmounting the square niche and the cabin or house in which this 
Indian Buddha is seated. 

The resemblance of this Buddha of Yucatan with the figure of the 
Buddha of Java, published in "Crawfurd's Indian Archipelago" (vol. ii, 
p. 200), is such that M. Burnouf at first believed my sketches of the 
ancient palace of Uxmal in Yucatan, sketches copied from Plate xvii of 
M. Waldeck's, to be of purely East Indian and Siamese origin, and not 
American. 

M. Burnouf knew that the worship of the monstrous Siva accompanied, 
even in Siam and Nepal, the gentler worship of Buddha, and that their 
images are often coupled, as in the temple of Boro-Boudor, in ancient 
Java, in the Indian Archipelago, and as in particular Typhon and the 
young Horus were coupled in ancient Egypt. 

We find again, in the center of America, the same two figures, also 
coupled, exactly copied, and, to the number of eight, ornamenting the 
southern fagade of an Oriental temple ; thus, as it seems to me, clearly 
demonstrating the truth of the account of the voyage to Fu-sang, in 
the year 458 a. d., translated from- the Chinese by M. de Guignes, and 
attributed to five Buddhists who set forth from Ky-pin or Cophene — that 
is to say, from the country of Cabul in India. 

In the "Annales de Philosophic Chretienne," vol. xii, p. 441, where an 
analysis is given of the " Antiquit^s du Mexique," by Dupaix, the ex- 
plorations are mentioned which he made at Zachilla, the capital of the 
ancient kingdom of the Zapotecs, where he found upon a rock the imprint 
of a gigantic foot, an iniprint in which M. de Paravey sees an imitation 
of that which is worshiped upon Adam's Peak in Ceylon, and of which 
the nations of Ava and P(^gu, of the Buddhist religion, have also similar 
imitations ; in addition. Colonel Dupaix also found in this place an idol, 
seated, the hands crossed upon the breast, and which can be nothing else 
than one of the figures of Sakya, or Buddha. 

There, according to the " Journey of the Shamans," since translated by 
M. R6musat, was the country of Buddhism, and of the monstrous idola- 
tries of India ; deplorable alterations from the pure worship founded in 
Indo-Persia by Shem, in whom we see the celebrated Reu-tsi of the Chi- 
nese. 

There we hear of the two imaginary planets Ragu and Cetu^ the head 
and tail of the dragon, the nodes of the moon, the cause of eclipses, 
and the place of the conjunctions ; and these planets are draion at full 
length upon the western facade of the palace of Uxmal in Yucatan, being 
interlaced so as to form knots or nodes, and having feathers instead of 
scales, thus showing that they are intended for atrial beings. All this 
points to an ancient hieroglyphic astronomy, in which the spirals of the 



DE PARAVEY'S NEW PROOFS. 73 

sun, in its apparent course from one tropic to the other, are symbolized 
by a dragon or a vast boa-constrictor, a thing quite natural as an image. 
— So, in Chinese, or ancient Babylonian, an eclipse of the sun is written 
by a picture of the sun eaten by a dragon, or serpent, and an eclipse 
of the moon by the figure of the moon eaten ly a dragon. In Chinese 
ji g, chi 1^, is an eclipse of the sun, and yue ^, chi f^, an eclipse of 
the moon ; these phrases being used to convey the idea that the heavenly 
bodies are swalloiced little ly little— Chi, ^ ("Diet, Chin.," No. 9505), 
the phonetic, means "to eat," and when this is united with the radi- 
cal chong, ^, that of the serpent, the two together signify " to eat little 
by little as the boas swallow their food." Notwithstanding the fact that 
the art of calculating eclipses is known in China, the common people 
believe only in making a noise to frighten this imaginary dragon,, this 
feathered or aerial boa. 

To find the picture at full length of these Chinese and East Indian 
superstitions, at Uxmal in Yucatan, and to see every evidence of a dupli- 
cation in America of the Buddha of Java— an island which also contains 
at Suku a tcocalli, or ancient pyramidal temple, similar to that of Uxmal 
in America, drawn by M. Waldeck (see his " Voyage au Yucatan ")— have 
appeared to me to be important and decisive facts. I hope that they, when 
brought to general notice by publication in the Society's Transactions, will 
attract the attention of educated Americans, and show them that their 
country and its ruins are worthy of more careful study than they have as 
yet received, and that they will lead to other explorations than those hith- 
erto made, which have been but little better than nothing. 

To defend the learned author of the " History of the Huns," relying 
here upon the wise geographer Buache, against the ill-founded objections 
of M. Klaproth, has also appeared to me to be very important, and I do 
not believe that any one can now deny the voyages of the Indo-Tartars 
to America, and that nearly one thousand years before Columbus. 

I could give further proofs of the connection of Uxmal, Palenque, and 
Tulha with India, but fear to trespass too greatly upon your space. 

Chevaliee de Paeavey. 

Paris, July SO, 18Ifi. 

Appendix B 

TO OrR LETTER TO THE ACADEMY. 

Few Proofs of the Introduction of the Worsh ip of Buddha into America, or 
into the Country of Fu-sang. Which was the First Country converted 
to this Religion in the Feic World? 
OxE of the countries of America which was first converted by the 

shamans of Cabul, arriving from the southern point of Kamtchatka at 



74 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the excellent port of San Francisco, in California, to tie north of Monte- 
rey, must evidently have been the country upon the banks of the Colorado 
River, a large river which flows through these same regions from the 
north to the south and falls into the northern end of the Gulf of California. 
Now, in the useful translations of the Spanish authors made by M. Ter- 
naux-Compans, we find that Castafieda placed near the Colorado River, in 
a small island, a sanctuary of Lamaisra, or of Buddhism. He mentions a 
divine personage living in a small house near a lake upon this island, and 
called, as he says, " Quatu-zaca," who was reputed never to eat. 

Maize, deer-skin mantles, and cloth made of feathers were offered to 
him in great quantities ; and in the same place (which proves a coloniza- 
tion) they also made many little bells of copper. 

Even the name of this deified lama, or of this idol Quatu-zaca, contains 
the Tartar and East Indian name " Xaca," written Shi-Jcia in Chinese, and 
" Sakya" in Sanscrit, the name of the celebrated god Buddha; a remark 
which we are the first to make, and " Quatu " may indicate his origin as 
of " Cathay." * 

Castafieda adds that the nations of these countries were very peace- 
able and gentle, never waged war, and (abstaining from flesh) lived solely 
upon three or four kinds of very good fruits. 

It is therefore impossible to fail to see here an ancient colony of Bud- 
dhists, or of lamas, a colony which in turn pushed its branches into Mex- 
ico, Yucatan, Bogota, and even to Peru, a country of very civilized customs. 

The Mexicans, frightfully cruel in their recent idolatries, are, as is 
known, emigrants from the northeast of Asia and from the northwestern 
part of America, but much more recent; and before their arrival in 
these beautiful countries it is to be believed, as is stated in the account 
of Fu-sang, that the gentle and fraternal religion of the Buddhists, the 
remnants of the race of Shem, reigned there exclusively. 

Even the title of the shamans, who came there in 458, is derived from 
the Sanscrit "sramana," which signifies "peaceful," M. Pauthier tells us; 
and this name is afterward found again in Mexico, where M. Ternaux- 
Compans (Mexican Vocabulary, in his translation of the old Spanish authors) 
gives Amanam as the name of the priests and the diviners, a word which 
evidently may at first have been pronounced Chamanani, Samanani, 
Shamaneans. Chevaliee de Paeavet. 

Saint Germain, April 26, 1S47. 

* The name " Cathay " was, however, used as a name of the Kingdom of 
China,'"" or of its northern portion, and not of India.'^" — E. P. V. 



DE PAEAVEY'S IsEW PROOFS. 75 



Appexdix C. 

is eegaed to the figube of a native of fu-saxg foitn'd in chinese 
books, and now pitblished fop. the fie3t tlile. 

To what Country of America can the almost Kude Man, which the Chi- 
nese Booh picture as an Inhabitant of Fa-sang, hate belonged? 

As may be seen by the engraving,* the Chinese supposed that the men 
who inhabited the country of Fu-sang were almost naked. Xow, it may 
be said that the inhabitants of IS^orth America are fully clothed. This is 
true of the greater part of the country ; but in the " Voyage to the Mouth 
of the Columbia River" of Lewis & Clark (page 302, and also page 507), 
at latitude 46° 18' north, these explorers found the Chinook Indians, and 
in a village upon the Island of Deer, they found women who, instead of 
short petticoats, had a simple truss about the loins, or a narrow skin cov- 
ering this part of their bodies. 

Tliey say (page 286) that the Indians living near the Columbia River, 
owing to the mildness of the climate, always have the legs and feet bare, 
even in winter; and never wear more than small robes, even in cold 
weather ; or skin aprons and a kind of cloak upon the shoulders (page 
310). The moccasins for the feet and legs are not used, except in Canada 
and near Hudson's Bay, where the climate is much colder. 

So the man oi Fu-sang, shown as almost nude in the old drawing from ^ 
the Pian-y-tien and the Chinese Cyclopaedia, must have lived near the 
Columbia River in the neighbourhood of California, a rich and beautiful 
country of a very mild and temperate climate, the country of Oregon, 
regarding which, Spain, England, and the United States are now dis- 
puting. 

In addition, if we open the " Exploration de TOregon et de la Cali- 
fornia," published in 1844 by M. Duflot de Mofras (vol. ii, page 250), we 
see, in fact, that these Indians therein described have only the loins or the 
middle of the body covered ; and this exactly as in the plate of the na- 
tive of Fu-sang, a plate reproduced since the year 499 of our era in all the 
foreign geographies published in China and Japan. 

Everything, therefore, justifies my conjectures. As to the spotted hind 
and its fawn, we have cited M. von Humboldt in regard to the Cervus Mex- 
icanus of Linnaeus. And we point out, in this connection also, in order to 
show that the natives know how to keep them in herds and tame them, 
the " Voyage en Amerique " by M. de Chateaubriand (in 8vo, vol. i, page 

* It has not been thought advisable to give a copy of the engraving, to which 
reference is made, as there is no reason for believing it to be anything more than 
a sketch made from the fancy of the Chinese artist. — E. P. V. 



76 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

130), where he speaks of the hinds of Canada, a charming sort of hornless 
reindeer, which they tamed there, he tells us. 

Cheyaliee de Paeayey, 

(Extract from No. 90 (June, 1847) of the " Annales de Philosophie 
Chr^tienne.") 

EEFUTATION OF THE OPINION E5PEESSED BY M. JOMAED THAT THE NATIONS 
OF AMEEIOA NEYEB HAD ANY CONNECTION WITH THOSE OF ASIA. 

{Extract from the number of May, 1849, of the '■'■Aniialea de Philosophie 

Chretienne.''') 

The essay opens with a statement of the importance of geographical 
study, in assisting to open up commerce with foreign nations ; disputes 
the unchristian idea that the people of America can have been Autoch- 
thones; gives a resume of former arguments regarding i^M-sa??gr; and adds 
the following new matter : 

In addition to the Phoenician and East Indian art of dyeing purple with 
the murex, and the art of fishing for pearls, which is found near Panama, 
in the countries of Guaxaca and of Chacahua in America, there also exists 
another art, purely East Indian, which of itself demonstrates the arrival 
of the Buddhists of Cabul in America, named by them the country of the 
Extreme East — that is to say in Chinese, the country of Fu-sang. This art 
is that of using the cochineal insect of the nopal plant, an art equally found 
at Guaxaca, and which produces the wealth of this central country of 
America. 

In 1795, at Madras in India, Major Anderson showed, in a special essay, 
that the cochineal insect and the nopal plant upon which it lives are found 
in India and toward the countries of Lahore and Cabul ; and he thought 
that from these they must have been imported into America, into the 
country of Honduras near Mexico ; but he does not show how.* 

* The substance of the article that is referred to ^"^ is, that cochineal insects 
were brought from Rio Janeiro to Calcutta, and that, when they reached the latter 
place, the nopal plants upon which they lived were so nearly dead that none of 
them could be revived. The insects were therefore tried upon all the varieties of 
nopal that could be obtained, including a variety from the Cape of Good Hope, one 
from Mauritius, and a number of others, but could not live upon any of them, with 
the exception of a variety found growing in Bengal, which had a flower exactly 
similar to that of the nopal upon which the insects grew in America, and which 
seemed to be the same plant. Upon this the insects thrived. 

W. Roxburgh says this variety " seems to be a native of Bengal ; at least it has 
been long known." 

James Anderson says " it is common over all the Carnatic " ; and he again 
speaks of it as " common and indigenous," and also says " it is common as far 



DE PAPvAVEY'S NEW PROOFS. 77 

Xow, the account of Fu-sang attributes precisely to these East Indians 
of Ky-inn^ or of Cabulistan, the civilization of America, which must have 
preceded the ferocious and sanguinary religion of the Tartars of Mexico. 

These peaceful and Buddhistic Indians occupied themselves vrith com- 
merce and useful arts. Having known in their own country how to 
utilize the precious lac insect as well as that of the nopal, and finding the 
nopal in Mexico, they must have also carried there the insect which lives 
upon it, or, if it existed there, they made use of it as a means of preparing 
cochineal, an art that is purely East Indian and Asiatic. 

Merely the names of Guaxaca, Chacahua, Zachita, and Zacapa, found 
in Honduras and Guatemala, demonstrate the presence of these Buddhists 
in these countries, since "Xaca" and " Sakya," or " Shi-kia,^^ are the 
well-known Asiatic names of the celebrated divinity Fo, or the Indian 
Buddha, a god represented as seated with crossed legs, the figure of which 
drawn at Uxmal in Yucatan without recognition, by M. de Waldeck the 
artist sent by the late Lord Kingsborough, has been first brouglit into 
notice by us. 

The character shi, ^, of the name "/SAi-X-/a," or "Sakya," signifies 
" to release, to dismiss, to pardon " ; and the character Ma, StU, " to sit 
with the legs crossed," exactly as the figure found at IJxmal by M. Wal- 
deck is seated. Chevaliee de Paeavet. 

north as Nepal, where they say an insect lives on it with which they dye red." 
There is no proof, however, that this was the cochineal insect. 

At tliis time different varieties of the cactus had been introduced from 
America into almost all parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and had long been com- 
mon in many districts. There is nothing to show that the nopal, then found in 
Bengal, had not been introduced from America some time during the three centuries 
elapsing between the discovery of America and the date referred to in the article. 
And there is one fact, which seems to render it almost certain that the plant had 
been introduced from Mexico, and at a comparatively recent date, as it is stated 
that " the Bengalese call their cactus ' neeg-penny,' or ' nag-penny.' " It is evident 
that this is a corruption of the Mexican term "nopalH," or "nochpalH"; and if the 
plant had been introduced in Hwiti S7ian^s time, thirteen centuries before, the name 
would probably have changed more than this during that length of time. There 
is really no reason to beheve that the plant had been introduced into India before 
the discovery of America by Columbus. By the end of the eighteenth century the 
prickly pear, or Indian fig, had become wild in India, just as it had in many other 
countries where it is known that it was carried early in the sixteenth century. 
It seems to have been widely distributed, not only for its fruit, but as a curiosity, 
and as it throve well in nearly all tropical lands, it soon grew wild and spread it- 
self over the country. — E. P. Y. 



CHAPTER VI. 

feumann's monogeaph. 

The knowledge of foreign nations possessed by the Chinese — Their precepts — The 
journey of Lao-tse — Embassies and spies — Knowledge derived from foreign 
visitors — Its preservation in Chinese records — The introduction of Buddhism 
— Its command to extend its doctrines to all nations — Chinese system of ge- 
ography and ethnology — The unity of the Tartars and Red-skins — American 
languages — The Tunguses, or Eastern Barbarians — The Pe-ti, or Northern Bar- 
barians — The Ainos, or Jebis, and the Negritos — The Wen-shin^ or Pictured- 
people — Embassies between China and Japan — The Country of Dwarfs — The 
Chinese " Book of Mountains and Seas " — Information given by a Japanese 
embassador — Kamtchatka, the Tchuktchi, and the Aleuts — Lieu-kuei — The 
length of the li — Lieu-kuei, a peninsula — The land of the Je-tshay — The na- 
tives of Kamtchatka — Their dwellings — Their clothing — The climate — The 
animals of the country — The customs of the people — The country of the Wen- 
shin identified with the Aleutian Islands — Ta-han, or Alaska — The kingdom 
of Fu-sang and its inhabitants — The Amazons — Fu-sang identified with the 
western portion of America called Mexico — The fu-sang tree — Only one voy- 
age made — Chinese accounts of Fu-sang — The distance from Ta-han, or Alas- 
ka, indicates that Fu-sang is Mexico — The oldest history of America — Suc- 
cessive tribes — The ruins of Mitla and Palenque — Something of earlier races 
to be learned from the condition of the Aztecs — Pyramidical monuments — If 
Buddhism existed in America, it was an impure form — The myth of Huitzilo- 
pochtli — The /M-sa«^, the maguey, or Agave Americana — Connection between 
the flora of America and that of Asia — Metals and money — Laws and customs 
of the Aztecs — Domestic animals — Horses — Oxen — Stag-horns — Chinese and 
Japanese in the Hawaiian group and in Northwestern America — Shipwrecks 
upon the American coast — The voyages of the Japanese. 

Eastern Asia and Western America, according to Chinese Au- 
thorities of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Centuries — by Karl 
Friedrich Neumann}^^^ 

\^ 1. The Knowledge of Foreign Nations possessed by 

THE Chinese. — As, in the eyes of the Chinese, the " Middle 
Kingdom " was the most cultured upon earth, its precepts re- 



NEUMANN'S MONOGEAPH. 79 

quired that it should not only preserve its customs and laws as 
handed down from former generations, but that it should extend 
these customs and laws abroad beyond the limits of the country. 
It was added that this extension of knowledge should not be 
brought about by the art of persuasion of any missionaries, or by 
the compulsive force of armed troops. A true renovation could 
only take place, as in the case of every other healthy organic 
growth, when the pressure was from within outward ; when the 
surrounding barbarians, irresistibly attracted by the virtue and 
majesty of the Sons of Heaven, and ashamed of their barbarism, 
should voluntarily obey the image of the Heavenly Father and 
become men. 

A people actuated by such a spirit would undertake no voy- 
ages of discovery, and would carry on no wars of conquest ; and 
during the history of this Oriental land, covering a period of four 
thousand years, no single prominent man is named who journeyed 
into foreign lands in order to improve himself or others. The 
journey of Lao-tse to the West, from which he neither returned 
nor wished to return, appears to have been a myth, designed to 
connect his teaching regarding the " Primitive and Infinite Wis- 
dom " with the western " Mountain of the Gods " or with Bud- 
dhism. The campaigns which were undertaken beyond the 
limits which nature has set to the Chinese empire were merely 
the result of efforts at self-preservation. In Central as in East- 
ern Asia, in Thibet as on the Irawaddy, it is necessary to take 
precautions against dangers and disasters which might ultimately 
threaten the liberty of the nation. As is not infrequently the case, 
in Europe as well as in Asia, it becomes necessary to send embas- 
sies and spies into surrounding regions in order to obtain infor- 
mation as to their situation and condition, as well as to the cir- 
cumstances and intentions of the inhabitants, of a nature which 
might prove of service in military expeditions and negotiations 
with the enemies of the empire. Moreover, the glorious and for- 
tunate " Middle Kingdom " allured not only barbarians eager for 
spoils, but also merchants eager for gain, since several articles, 
such as silk, tea, and genuine rhubarb, were found only here. 
The Chinese government, like its people, has been controlled by 
the precepts of its sages, and has at all times i-eceived strangers 
humanely and courteously, as long at least as they yielded un- 
conditional obedience, or otherwise showed submission and fear ; 



80 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and, according to Oriental custom, their gifts were repaid by 
others more valuable. All these discoveries, and all the informa- 
tion obtained in their different peaceable or warlike methods, 
whether relating to the neigbouring nations or to those dwelling 
in the most distant parts of the earth, were noted in the last divis- 
ion of the Annual Registers of Chinese history, of which, from 
our point of view, they constitute the most valuable portion. 

The arrogance and vanity of the Chinese people were part- 
ly eradicated, however, by means of the introduction of Bud- 
dhism, and its gradual conquest of the countries of Eastern Asia. 
He who believed in the divine mission of the Son of the King of 
Kapilapura must recognize every human being as his equal and 
brother ; yes, must strive — for the ancient religion of Buddha, 
as in the case of many others of its dogmas and customs, agreed 
with the more youthful religion of Christianity in this point also 
— to extend the gospel of redemption to all nations upon the face 
of the earth ; and, for this purpose, following the example of the 
divine-man, must be ready to take upon himself all conceivable 
sufferings and labours. We therefore find a number of Bud- 
dhist monks and priests going forth from Central Asia and 
China, from Japan and Corea, to known and unknown regions, 
either for the purpose of obtaining information as to their dis- 
tant brothers in the faith or to preach the doctrine of the Holy 
Trinity to unbelievers. The accounts of these missionaries' 
travels, of which we possess several, viewed from a geographical 
and ethnological standpoint, are among the most important and 
instructive works of the entire body of Chinese literature. From 
them is derived the greatest part of the information which we 
shall give regarding Northeastern Asia and the countries of the 
western coast of America; information which has descended from 
centuries that until now have been concealed from view by dark- 
est night. 
, 2. Their System of Geography and Ethnology. — Arro- 

/ gance and vanity are the basis whereupon the Chinese built 
( most of their peculiar system of geography and ethnology. 
Ai*ound the " Central Flower," so they were taught by their 
sages, dwelt rude, uncouth nations, which in reality were but 
animals, although they had the form and figure of the human 
race. Because of this assumed animal nature, the inhabitants 
^ of the " Central Flower " gave them nicknames of all kinds : 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 81 

dogs, swine, demons, and barbarians, were the distinguishing 
names which they gave to foreigners dwelling in the four cardi- 
nal directions ; to the east, west, north, and south. The few 
western investigators and historians, who have thought it worth 
the trouble to devote their attention to the fallow field of the 
history of Eastern and Central Asia, have unquestionably fol- 
lowed the ethnogi-aphical system resting upon these limited geo- 
graphical elements. It therefore sometimes happens that races 
are I'epresented as belonging to the same family, which in fact 
have no connection, and sometimes one and the same nation is 
divided up among different families ; this occurring especially 
among the numerous and widely extended family of the Tartars. 
3. The Unity of the Tartars and Red-skins. — The Tun- 
guses and Mongolians and a great portion of the Turks origin 
nally formed (according to the important indications of their 
bodily figure, as well as the elements of their languages) a single 
family of nations, really connected with the Esquimaux (the 
Skraelings or dwarfs of the Norsemen) as well as with the races 
and tribes of the New World. This is the solid, irrefutable re- 
sult of the latest researches in the fields of comparative anatomy 
and physiology, as well as in those of comparative philology and 
history. All researches point in the end to their unity. The Red- 
skins have all the different peculiarities which can remind us of 
their neighbours on the other side of Behring's Strait. They have 
a four-cornered or round head, high cheek-bones, heavy jaws, 
large four-cornered eye-sockets, and a low, retreating forehead. 
The skulls of the oldest Peruvian graves show the same pecul- 
iarities as the heads of the nomadic Indians of Oregon and 
California ; and Gallatin, in his researches in the field in which 
he stands alone, has shown * that the American languages as a 
whole have such a similarity that, however different their vo- 
cabularies may be, they all point back to a common origin. All 
researches regarding the manner in which America was peopled 
lead to the same final conclusion. Since the earth has been in- 
habited, these natives have dwelt in the neighbouring regions of 
Asia and America. The rude masses have in the course of cen- 
turies, by means of different processes of civilization, been sepa- 
rated into different races and nations, each of a peculiar physi- 
cal type — a consequence of the higher mental tendencies — and 

* Baer, in the " Beitrage zur Kentniss des Russischen Rciclies ," vol. i, p. 279, 
6 



82 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

numerous languages have grown up; yet they still bear sufficient 
tokens of their original unity, in their physical peculiai-ities, as 
well as in their languages, their customs, and their habits. This 
unity is shown by their genealogy (the oldest historical system 
of all nations which know only a single original ancestor), which 
leads the Turks, Mongols, and Tunguses back to the same ori- 
gin.* Among the Tartarian hordes we find a relationship simi- 
lar to that which existed between the different German races. 
The Ostrogoths and Visigoths, the Ostphalians and Westpha- 
lians, the men of the north and men of the south, belonged in 
their essential nature to one and the same Teutonic family, not- 
withstanding the differences in their culture and their destiny. 

4. The Tunguses, the Easteen Barbarians. — All the nu- 
merous Tartaric tribes which wandered about, or dwelt north- 
easterly from the Middle Kingdom, were called by the civilized 
southern people Tong-hi, "Eastern Red-men, or Barbarians," 
from which term our word " Tunguse " has sprung, which has 
since been applied to the people of a much smaller section of 
country. Among the Tong-hu the Mongolians were pi-ominent, 
many centuries before Chinggis Chakan, distinguished by the 
slightly different names of Wog or Mog, and divided into seven 
tribes, whose abodes stretched from the Corean Peninsula high 
up into the North, across the Amoor River, and to the Eastern 
Ocean — that is to say, to the Gulf of Anadir, or to Behring's 
Strait. The nomadic races, called Pe-ti, or " Northern Barbari- 
ans," dwelt more directly noi'th ; and many tribes were sometimes 
described as belonging to the Tunguses, and sometimes to the 
Pe-ti. In one way and another the Chinese obtained an aston- 
ishingly accurate knowledge of the northeastern coast of the 
Asiatic Continent, which, as is shown by their observations in 
astronomy and natural history, extended to the sixty-fifth degree 
of latitude, and even to the Arctic Ocean. f Among other ac- 
counts, they tell of a country, inhabited by a small tribe, called 
Kolihan, or Chorhan, which during the latter half of the seventh 
century sent several embassies to the court at Singan. This 
country lay on the North Sea, far from the " Middle Kingdom," 

* The " Shajrat ul Atrak," or Genealogical Tree of the Turks and Tartars, 
translated by Colonel Miles, London, 1838. Tung, or Tungus, is here (p. 25) rep- 
resented as a son of Turk. 

\ Gaubil, "Observations Mathematiquee," Paris, 1732, vol. ii, p. 110. 



KEUMANN''S MONOGRAPH. 83 

and beyond, still farther north, and on the other side of this sea, 
the days were sometiraes so long and the nights so short that 
the sun sank and rose again before a breast of mutton could be 
roasted.* The Chinese were well acquainted with the customs 
of these hordes, which completely resembled those of the present 
Tchuktchi, the Koljushes, f and other families of Northeast- 
em Asia and Northwestern America. " These barbarians," they 
say, " have neither oxen, sheep, nor other domestic animals ; but, 
as some compensation for the lack of these animals, they make use 
of deer, which are very numerous." The deer spoken of are un- 
doubtedly reindeer, which have also been described by European 
voyagers as resembling the common deer. J " Of agriculture these 
petty tribes know nothing. They support themselves by hunt- 
ing and fishing, and upon the root of a plant that is found there 
in great abundance. Their dwellings are built of brush-wood 
and pieces of larger wood, and their clothing is made of birds'- 
feathers and the skins of wild animals. Their dead are laid in 
coffins, which are hung on trees growing in the mountain ranges. 
They know nothing of any division of the year into different 
seasons." * 

The Chinese were also as well acquainted with the tribes 
which dwelt directly east as with these northern nations. 

5. The Ainos, or Jebis, and the Negritos. — Even as early 
as the reign of the Cheu dynasty, in the times of David and 
Solomon, the limits of Chinese civilization reached to the Pacific 
Ocean. The numerous neighbouring groups of islands were known 
in the kingdom and visited for the purpose of trading. Their 
inhabitants sent embassies to the court, which offered all kinds 
of presents, that are described in full in the Shu-Mng, or Chinese 
Book of Annals. Moreover, it often happened, and still happens, 
that China sent forth a part of its overflowing or discontented 
population to those islands which were either sparsely settled, 

* " J/« Twan.lin,'" Book 348, p. 6. 

f " Koljushi," or " Koljuki," is the name of the pegs which these barbarians 
wear in their under lip, and from these they originally derived their name. The 
Russians who govern this land afterward called them " Galoches " (from that 
word of the French language), the name being at first applied only in jest. In 
the course of time, however, this word superseded the earlier name " Koljukes," 
so that they are now universally called " Kaloshes." 

X Forster, " Schifffahrten itn Norden," Frankfort, 1'784, p. 338. 

» "Ma Twan-lin," Book 344, p. 18. 



84 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

or, in some cases, entirely uninhabited, colonies having thus been 
sent to Japan, to Lieu-kuei, and to Tai-wan or Formosa, of which 
fact we possess explicit historical testimony. The family of the 
Ainos, or Jebis, stretching from Japan to Kamtchatka, over the 
Kurile and the Aleutian Islands and far away into the North, 
where it meets the allied family of the Esquimaux, must have 
appeared especially remarkable to these Chinese-Mongolian colo- 
nists and traders (who themselves possessed but scanty beards) 
on account of the strong growth of hair with which the bodies 
of these Ainos were covered. On this account they were called 
Mao-jin (or, according to the Japanese pronunciation of the 
Chinese characters. Mo-sin), meaning " Hairy-people " ; or, from 
the numerous sea-crabs which the ocean in these regions throws 
up upon the beach,* Ilia-i (or, according to the Japanese pro- 
nunciation, Jesso) — that is to say, " Crab-barbarians." Moreover, 
because the Ainos, like the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, 
and other barbarians, have the custom of tattooing themselves 
with all kinds of figures, they were also called Wen-shin, or 
*' Pictured-people." In the course of time still other names were 
applied to them ; but he who is governed by a knowledge of the 
nature of these regions and their inhabitants, immediately recog- 
nizes that the different descriptions and accounts all relate to the 
same family of the Ainos. We are indebted to the repeated em- 
bassies, which in earlier times went back and forth between China 
and Japan, for a great part of the information contained in the 
Annual Registers of the " Middle Kingdom " regarding the north- 
easterly and southeasterly islands and tribes, and, although much 
that is fabulous is undoubtedly contained in their accounts, still 
even their most incredible tales may contain some element of 
truth. So in the Chu-shu, or "Dwarfs," dwelling far distant 
from Japan in a southerly direction, having black bodies, naked 
and ugly, who murder and eat strangers, we immediately recog- 
nize the inhabitants of New Guinea or Papua.f The Ainos are 
first mentioned by the name of " the Hairy-people," in the Chi- 
nese " Book of Mountains and Seas," a work dating from the 
third or second century before our era, and richly adorned with 
wonderful tales. It says that they live in the Eastern Sea, and 

* " Beschreibung der KurilischenundAleutischen Inseln," translated from the 
Russian into German, Ulm, 1792, p. 16. 
f " 3faTwa)i-Un," Book 32Y, p. 37. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 85 

have hair growing over their entire body. * Several of these 
people accompanied a Japanese embassy to the " Middle King- 
dom " in the year 659 a. d. In the Annual Register of the Tang 
dynasty they are called " Crab-barbarians," and the following 
observation is added : " They had long beards and lived north- 
easterly from Japan " ; they presented arrows, bows, and deer- 
skins, as the chronicle states, as offerings to the throne.f 

These were inhabitants of Jesso, which island had shortly be- ^^-^ 
fore (in 658 a. d.) been conquered by the Japanese and made 
tributary to them. The questions of the " Son of Heaven " of 
the Tang dynasty and the answers of the Japanese embassador 
are given as follows : 

The Ruler of the Tang Dynasty. — Does the celestial auto- 
crat enjoy continual peace ? 

The Embassador. — Heaven and earth unite their gifts, and 
constant peace results. 

The Ruler of the Tang Dynasty. — Are the officers of the 
kingdom well selected ? 

The Embassador. — The grace of the Heavenly Ruler is be- 
stowed upon them and they remain well. 

The Rider of the Tang Dynasty. — Does internal peace pre- 
vail? 

The Embassador. — The government stands in accord with 
heaven and earth — the people have no cause for complaint. 

The Ruler of the Tang Dynasty. — Where does this land of 
Jesso lie ? 

The Embassador. — To the northeast. 

The Rider of the Tang Dynasty. — How many kinds of *' Crab- 
barbarians " are there ? 

The Embassador. — Three : the most distant we call Tsugaru 
(after which the Strait of Sangar, between Japan and Jesso, is 
named) ; the nearest Ara, and the next N'iki. The men here 

* The Skan-hai-kini/, quoted in the " Histoire des Trois Royaumes," translated 
by Titsingh, Paris, 1832, p. 213. Klaproth has, in accordance with his well-known 
deceptive manner, attempted to pass off this translation as his own. 

f Tang-slm, or "Annual Register of the Tang Dynasty," Book 220, p. 98. 
" Ma Twan-lin," Book 326, p. 23, where the account, as usual, is mutilated. Ti- 
tsingh, " Annales des Empereurs du Japan," Paris, 1834, p. 52. There is an agree- 
ment between the Chinese and Japanese Annual Registers upon this subject, that 
is worthy of notice. 



86 A15" INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

with us belong to these last. They come annually with their 
tribute to the court of our kingdom. 

The Miller of the Tang Dynasty. — Does this land produce 
grain ? 

The Embassador. — No ; the inhabitants live upon flesh. 

The Miller of the Tang Dynasty. — Have they houses ? 

The Embassador. — No ; they dwell in the mountain ranges 
among the trunks of trees.* 

Since this time in the seventh century, several military expe- 
ditions have been undertaken against these neighbouring " North- 
ern Barbarians," by the adjoining civilized khigdom, which have 
generally resulted successfully. The inhabitants of Jesso, how- 
ever, usually rose again after a short time, drove the Japanese 
garrison out of the land, and surrendered themselves anew to 
the wild freedom that was enjoyed by other members of the 
same family upon the neighbouring islands. Even now, as we 
learn from different sources, the Japanese rule over only a small 
part of this island so rich in gold mines. 

Jesso easily leads to an acquaintance with Kamtchatka, which 
happened to be also fully described for us at the same time, as 
is shown by the following account : 

6. Kamtchatka, the Tchuktchi, and the Aleuts. — 
Lieu-kuei, or Ling-goei, as the Kamtchatdales of the present 
day still call their fellow-countrymen on the Penshinish Bay,f 
is described in the Annual Registers of the "Middle King- 
dom " as fifteen thousand Chinese miles distant from the capital ; 
this standard of distance (the li, or Chinese mile), according to 
the renowned astronomer I-han^ was, in the time of the Tang 
* Nippon-ki — ^that is to say, " The Annual Eegisters of Japan," from 661 b. c. 
to 696 A. D., whicli were completed in the year '720. They embrace thirty volumes 
in 8vo. The portion translated by Hoffman is found in the 26th vol., p. 9, or 
vol. viii, p. 130, of Siebold's "Japanese Archives." 

•f- Steller, " Beschreibung von dem Lande Kamtschatka," Leipzig, 1*734, p. 3. 
The words between quotation-marks are translated literally from the Annual 
Registers of the Tang dynasty {Tangshu, Book 220, p. 19). The remainder 
is explanatory, and is mostly added from Steller. The Annual Registers of the 
Tang dynasty have also been compared with the article of Ma Twan-lin (Book 34 Y, 
p. 5), which indeed seems to have been borrowed from the Tang-shu, but it 
is arranged in better order, and also contains much original matter, on which 
account I have used it as the basis of my work. The compiler of the Encyclopae- 
dia of Kang-hi {Yuen-kien-lui-han) contented himself (Book 241, p. 19), as in 
many other places, with transcribing from Ma Twan-lin. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGKAPH. 87 

dynasty, contained about 338 times in one of our geographical 
degrees. 

Now, Si-ngan, the Chinese capital during the reign of the 
Taoig dynasty, is in the district of Shan-si, 34° 15' 34' north 
latitude and 106° 34' 0" east longitude from Paris. 

Peter and Paul's Haven in Kamtchatka is situated in 53° 0' 
59" north latitude and 153° 19' 56" east longitude from Paris. 

The distance between these two points wonderfully confirms 
the accounts of the Chinese Annual Registers, and leaves no 
room for doubt as to the identity of Kamtchatka with Lieu- 
kuei, for we may well be satisfied when such rough estimates, 
which may have been made by semi-barbarous sailors or by the 
barbarous inhabitants, come, in so great a distance, within two 
or three degrees of astronomical results. 

" This land lies in a northeasterly direction from the ' Black 
River,' or the ^ Black-dragon River ' (the Amoor) and the coun- 
try of the Mo-Jco, from which it is reached by a sailing-voyage of 
fifteen days' duration, which is the time usually occupied by the 
Mo-ko upon the voyage." As has already been indicated, these 
Mo-ko are the Mongolians, who in former centuries, and even up 
to the times of the Tang dynasty, extended from Corea, on 
the south, to the farther side of the Amoor River, on the 
north ; the western boundary of the country which they inhab- 
ited being unknown. In the east, as is expressly declared in our 
authorities, they roamed as far as to the ocean — i. e., to the Paci- 
fic Ocean — from the coast of which they could easily cross to the 
islands of the Pacific and to the continent of America. That 
this really happened, is indicated by the physical resemblance 
between the inhabitants of the two countries and the relation- 
ship between the Mongolian languages and the idioms of several 
tribes of American Indians. The distance from Ochotsk to the 
peninsula lying opposite is only about one hundred and fifty 
German miles, and the natives of this region are in fact accus- 
tomed to making this journey by water in from ten to fourteen 
days. 

" Lieii-kuei lies northerly from the Northern Sea, by which 
it is surrounded upon three sides. On the north the peninsula is 
bounded by the land of the Je-tshay, or Tchuktchi,* of which 

* In the " Tangshu " there is a typographical error. Instead of Pe-hai, " the 
North Sea," the name is given as Shao-hai, " the Little Sea." The proper read- 



88 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the limits are not clearly defined. From Karatchatka to Je- 
tsliay is a month's journey, and beyond it is an unknown land, 
from which no embassy ever came to the * Middle Kingdom.' 
Neither fortified places nor walled cities are found in this land ; 
the people live scattered about upon the islands of the sea, and 
upon the banks along the rivers and the sea, of which they salt 
and preserve the fish." 

Steller also assures us that the dwellings of the Italmen — 
i. e., the natives of Kamtchatka — are found along the rivers, on 
the inner sea, and at the mouths of small rivers, especially in 
such of these places as are provided with trees and bushes. Fish 
are found in incredible numbers, and salmon are especially numer- 
ous ; they are prepared in many ways, but chiefly by salting,* so 
as to serve for food both for man and beast throughout the long 
winters. The races living still farther north live also, almost 
exclusively, upon fish, from which fact they have received the 
name " Eskimantik," or "Eskimo," that is to say, "Raw-fish 
eaters ."f 

" Their dwellings consist of pits, which they dig quite deep 
in the earth, and then wall up with thick, unhewn wooden 
planks." These serve only as their winter residences, their sum- 
mer residences being set upon posts, like our pigeon-houses. 
The Italmen dig the earth out from three to five feet deep, 
making an excavation in the shape of a long rectangular paral- 
lelogram, and as large as may be required to accommodate their 
families. They throw the excavated earth all around the bor- 
ders of the pit in a pile two feet broad. Then they prepare 
willow stakes five or six feet long, and drive them into the 
ground close together along the wall of the pit, so that they 
reach to the same height as the earthen wall. Between these 
stakes and the earth they place dry straw, so that the earth may 
not fall through and by immediate contact with the articles con- 
tained in the dwelling cause them to become mouldy or rusty, 
ing is found in the two Encyclopaedias already named. Je-tshay-kuo, which here 
means " the Land of the Je-ishai/" is also named only in the two Encyclopaedias. 
The arrogant Chinese love to write the names of foreign nations with characters 
which are insulting and abusive in their meanings. The name Licu-kuci is there- 
fore written with characters meaning " the Dysenteric Devils," and Jc-tshaij with 
characters meaning " the Devil's Attendants." 

* Steller, pp. 169, 210, 211. 

f Mithridates, iii, 3-425. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 89 

In the middle of the pit they make the fire-place, between 
four slender piles, which are fastened above at one side of the 
entrance, which is near the fire-place, and serves also as a chim- 
ney through which the smoke escapes. Opposite the fire-place 
they make a channel in the ground from eight feet to two fath- 
oms long (the size and length being dependent upon the size of 
the dwelling), which extends outside of the house, which is 
opened when a fire is kindled and closed when the fire is allowed 
to go out. This air-opening is made in any side of the dwelling 
without regard to the cardinal points, care being only taken that 
it should always open toward the river near which the house is 
placed. The wind can usually find free entrance, but, when 
it comes in too strongly, they place a cover over the air- opening 
as a protection against it. When it is desired to enter the dwell- 
ing, it is necessary to go in through the opening in the roof, 
which serves as a chimney, and descend a ladder or a tree-trunk, 
in which notches in which to place the feet have been hewed. 
Difficult as this is to a European, especially when a fire is burn- 
ing and there seems danger of stifling from the smoke, it seems 
a very easy matter to the Italmen. The little children usually 
creep through the air-channel, which also serves as a cupboard 
in which the cooking and table utensils are stored. Internally, 
the dwelling is divided into squares by wooden beams, so that 
each of the inhabitants has his own particular sleeping-place 
and private room. 

" On account of the frequent fogs and heavy snows, the cli- 
mate is very raw and cold. The people are all clothed in the 
hides of the animals which they kill by hunting ; but they also 
prepare a species of cloth, from dogs' hair and various kinds of 
grasses, which is also used for clothing. In the winter the skins 
of swine and reindeer are used as clothing, and in the summer 
the skins of fishes. They have great numbers of dogs." 

We now know that a remarkable difference is found in the 
climate of different portions of Kamtchatka. Districts that lie 
only a short distance from each other have very different weather 
at the same season of the year. The southern portion of the 
peninsula is, in general, on account of the proximity of the sea, 
very cloudy and damp, and is, for a great portion of the time, 
subject to fearfully tempestuous winds. The farther we ascend 
to the north, toward the Penshinish Bay, the gentler are the 



90 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

winds in winter, and the smaller is the amount of rain that falls 
during the summer. There is no part of the world, however, 
in which rains are heavier or more frequent than in Kamtchatka, 
and deeper snow is nowhere found than occurs upon this penin- 
sula between the 51st and 54th degrees of north latitude. On 
this account the inhabitants need their warm clothing of seal- 
skins and reindeer hides. The skins of dogs, marmots, and 
sables are also prepared for this use. The women split dry net- 
tle-stalks and other grasses, and labouriously spin a yarn from 
them, which is made up into a species of linen cloth, and like- 
wise serves as the material for different articles of clothing. 
Reindeer, black bear, wolves, foxes, and other wild quadrupeds 
are found in great numbers, and are caught in many ways, some 
of them extremely ingenious, of which the Chinese have also 
heard. Dogs are the only domestic animals, and these are upon 
many accounts almost indispensable to the people of Kamtchat- 
ka ; they are harnessed to sledges, and so serve as substitutes 
for our horses and asses : and the dogs of this land are so strong 
that they endure more than our beasts of burden. Their skins 
and hair are made up into clothing, so that they also supply the 
place of sheep (of which none are found in this country), and of 
their wool. The statement, that swine are found in Kamtchatka, 
is an error of the Chinese writer ; * they would, indeed, prosper 
here, but in Steller's time none had been introduced into the 
country. Up to the present day several of the Mantchoo tribes, 
living farthest to the northeast, clothe themselves in fish-skins, 
on which account the Chinese call them " Jii-pi " (Fish-skins). 
They, like the Chedshen, belong to the Aleutian family. 

" The people have no regulations or laws, and know nothing 
of oflScers or of superiors in rank. If there is a robber in the 
land, the people are all called together in order to judge him. 
Nothing is known of the division and the succession of the four 
seasons of the year. Their bows are about four feet long, and 
their arrows like those of the 'Middle Kingdom.' From bones 
and stones they make a species of musical instrument. They 
love to sing and dance. They lay their dead in large tree- 
trunks, and mourn for them for three years, but without wear- 
ing any particular kind of mourning-garment. In the year 640, 

* It is possible that this term is applied to some species of marine animal re- 
sembling the seal. — E. P. V. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 91 

during the time of the reign of the Second Son of Heaven of the 
Tang dynasty, the first and last tribute-bringing embassy came 
from the land of Lieu-huei to the ' Middle Kingdom.' " 

Before the conquest of the country by the Russians, the Kam- 
tchatdales lived in a kind of community, as is the case among 
all wild tribes, as, for instance, among the early German tribes. 
Each revenged for himself the injuries that were done to him, 
and availed himself for this purpose of his weapons, which con- 
sisted of bows, arrows, and bone spears. In time of war they 
chose a leader, whose authority ceased with the war. If any- 
thing was stolen and the thief was not discovered, the elders 
called the people together and then exhorted each one of them 
to give up the criminal. If he was not detected in this way, then 
the magic arts of their shamans, or priests, were brought into 
requisition to conjure death and ruin down upon the head of the 
villain. The Italmen divided the solar year into two parts, call- 
ing one "summer" and the other "winter." The division into 
days and weeks is quite unknown to the Kamtchatdales, and 
most of them can not count beyond forty. They waste the 
greater part of their time with music and dancing, and in tell- 
ing merry stories. Their songs and melodies, of which Steller 
gives us several, seem charming and agreeable. 

If, says this distinguished man (sacrificed in Russia), whom I 
usually follow in the account of the customs and usages of the 
Kamtchatdales, we compare the cantatos of the great Orlando 
di Lasso, with which he charmed the King of France after the 
Parisian's Carnival of Blood, with those of the Italmen, the lat- 
ter seem much the more agreeable of the two, many of these 
arias being not merely one-part melodies, but being sung with an 
alto also. 

The Chinese account of the disposition of the corpses of the 
dead, and of the three-years' mourning, is not well founded. At 
least, at the time of the discovery of the country by the Rus- 
sians, nothing similar was found to exist. The sick, when they 
seemed past recovery, were cast to the dogs while still living, 
and any lamentation over the death of parents or other rela- 
tions very seldom occurred. It is possible, however, even if im- 
probable, that since the seventh century many a change and error 
has been made in the Chinese records regarding this country. 

The habitation of the Wen-s/mi, or " Pictured-people," must 



92 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

be looked for to the east of Kamtchatka, and therefore in the 
Aleutian Islands, if we accept the estimate in regard to their dis- 
tance from Japan. 

" The land of the Wen-shm,^' it is said in the Annual Regis- 
ters of the Southern Dynasties,* " is distant from Japan in a 
northeasterly direction about seven thousand Chinese miles," or 
some twenty of our geographical degrees, a direction and dis- 
tance placing us in the midst of the group of the Aleutian 
Islands. It is impossible to conceive how de Guignes can have 
sought for these " Pictured-people " in Jesso, and imagined that 
he found them there. 

" The bodies of these people exhibit all kinds of figures, such 
as those of animals and the like. They have three lines upon 
the forehead ; the large and straight indicate the nobles, the 
small and crooked the common people, of the nation." 

It is well known that before their conversion to Christianity 
the Aleuts not only tattooed different figures upon their bodies, 
but they also bored through the cartilage of the nose and wore 
a peg or pin stuck transversely through the opening, and upon 
holidays hung glass beads upon this pin. The women in the 
same way bored through the ear, all about the margin, and also 
made incisions in the lower lip, in which they wore bone or stone 
needles some two inches long. 

7. Ta-han, Alaska. — In the times of the Ziiang dynasty, in 
the first half of the sixth century of our era, the Chinese heard of 
a land which lay five thousand of their miles easterly from the 
country of the " Pictured-people " of the Aleutian Islands, and 
named it " Ta-lian^'' or "Great China." The direction and the 
distance lead us to the great Peninsula of Alaska. The country 
was apparently named " Great China " because some account of 
the great continent which stretched out beyond the peninsula 
had reached the " Middle Kingdom." So, for the same reasons, 
according to the Sagas, the Irish who, in earlier centuries, dis- 
covered America long before the days of Columbus, named the 
newly-discovered regions " Great Ireland." f 

* Nan-sse — i. e., " History of the Southern Dynasties," Book 79, p. 5. The 
same article is also found in the Liang-shu, or " The Annual Registers of the 
Liang Dynasty," Book 54, p. 19, and in Ma Twan-lin's work. Book 327, p. 2. 

■f The Munich " Gel. Anzeiger," vol. viii, p. 636. This must have been the 
country stretching from the two Carolinas to the southern point of Florida. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 93 

We are informed that the people of Ta-han upon the whole 
resembled the " Pictured-people " in their customs and usages. 
"The two nations, however, spoke quite different languages. 
The people of Ta-han carried no weapons and knew nothing of 
war and strife." 

Beyond Ta-han, the Chinese learned, at the close of the fifth 
century of our era, of the existence of a land which the elder 
de Guign'es has already located in the northwestern part of the 
American Continent. The conjecture of this sagacious and schol- 
arly man is in its main points well founded, but we are now in 
a position to clearly determine the particular country of America 
to which the Chinese account referred. The zealous investiga- 
tions concerning the perished civilization of the New World, and 
the traces of it which still exist, have led to results of which the 
investigators of the eighteenth century could have had no knowl- 
edge. We will now give, first, a complete and literal transla- 
tion of the Chinese account regarding the distant eastern land, 
and follow it with an explanation, as far as practicable, of its 
various statements. 

8-11. — The Kingdom of Fu-sang and its Inhabitants. — 
[Here follows a translation of the Chinese account, which is 
given in full elsewhere, and which it therefore will not be neces- 
sary to quote here.] 

12. The Amazons. — The same Buddhist priest to whom we 
owe the account of the land of Fu-sang tells also of a Kingdom 
of Women. It lay about a thousand Chinese miles easterly from 
Fu-sang, and was inhabited by white people with very hairy 
bodies.* The whole account, however, contains so much that is 
fabulous that it is not worth while to give it. It is none the 
less remarkable, however, that, from the most ancient times, all 
great civilized nations which have had written accounts that 
have come down to us, speak of a kingdom of women which, the 
farther that the northeastern portions of Asia became known 
without finding any such kingdom, was always pushed back to a 
greater distance, until finally these governing women were trans- 
planted into America. It is hardly necessary to say that such a 
kingdom of women never existed. It is quite possible that here 

* The account is found in the Nan-sse, Book 79, p. 5 ; Liangshu, Book 54, 
p. 49, and copied from these, but with many corrections, in the Encyclopaedia of 
Ma Twan-lin, Book 327, et seq. 



-\ 



94 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and there the women of many different races had separate dwell- 
ing-places, or perhaps lived apart upon an island, where they from 
time to time received visits from the men. The Arabs likewise 
tell of such an arrangement ; * but they placed their country of 
women in quite another part of the world. The knowledge of 
the Arabians and Persians of the northern and northeastern re- 
gions of the earth extended only as far as Japan. East of Japan, 
Abulfeda expressly declares, the earth was believed to be unin- 
habited. 

13. Fu-SANG, THE "WeSTEEN PoRTION' OF AmERICA, CALLED 

Mexico. — What all these distant lands were called by their na- 
tive inhabitants we do not know, and, in fact, it is rarely that 
the native names of foreign countries are known, even of those 
which have been recently discovered. We only know that the 
Chinese Buddhist missionaries gave to the country the name of 
a tree which grew in great numbers both there and in Eastern 
Asia,! o^ rather, perhaps, as seems probable, the new land was 
covered with a plant similar to the Asiatic fu-sang, and to this 
new plant the old name fu-sang was given, and this designation 
was then applied to the country also, for it is one of the in- 
born dispositions of human nature to name a country after its 
prominent productions which are rare elsewhere. So the Nor- 
mans, who discovered the northern coast of America, about five 
hundred years after the era of these Buddhist priests, named 
the country "Vinland," because of the great abundance of 
wild grape-vines growing there. On account of the great dis- 
tance of Fu-sang, no more missionaries ever reached the country, 
yet the Buddhists and the Chinese investigators interested in 
antiquarian researches never allowed this land, which had been 
once described with so many details, to be forgotten. Chinese 
scholars have mentioned it frequently in their works, and have 
even given it a place in their maps,J while the Buddhists, in 
their uncritical, meditative way, never became weary of repeat- 
ing the old tales. The myth-loving geographers and poets also 
availed themselves of this knowledge at a later period, and spun 
the tale out in many fanciful ways, as was done by those of the 
West in regard to Prester John. These strange and charming 

* Edrisi, ii, p. 433, ed. Jaubert. 

f Loureiro, "Flora Cochin-Chinensis," BeroHni, 1793, ii, 510. 

\ Fa-kiai-ngan-U-tu, i. e., "Sure Tables of Religion," i, 22. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 95 

pictures of the imagination, regarding the tree and the land of 
JPu-sang, will, in the eyes of the earnest investigator, cause no 
more doubt of the truth of the historical portion of the accounts, 
than the rich collections of popular stories regarding Alexander 
the Great and Charlemagne cause regarding the historical works 
of Arrian and Eginhard. 

The distance of the land from Ta-han, or Alaska, which, ac- 
cording to the estimate already given, amounts to fifty-seven or 
fifty-eight degrees, hriags us to the northwestern coast of Mex- 
ico, or New Spain, in the region of San Bias or the neighbouring 
districts. The other details of the Buddhist-Chinese account 
also point to this region no less plainly, but before entering 
upon an examination of the history of the Aztecs, it seems neces- 
sary to explain a difficulty which might otherwise destroy this 
whole attempt to furnish proof as to the true situation of the 
country. 

14. The Oldest History op America.. — The account of 
this Buddhist, goes back to times far antedating all the tra- 
ditions and historical records of the Aztecs, dubious as these 
are, from the fact that they rest only upon the uncertain inter- 
pretation of their hieroglyphic records. One fact, however, is 
certain amidst these otherwise uncertain tales as to the early his- 
tory of America. The barbarian races of conquerors that fol- 
lowed one another in this region, always journeying from the 
north to the south, murdered, drove away, and enslaved the ear- 
lier inhabitants, and, in the course of time, formed new civil 
and political institutions, modified by their own peculiarities, 
but modeled upon those of the destroyed kingdom, and these, in 
turn, were in the course of a few centuries again shattered by 
other barbarians. These later bands of conquerors can no more 
be considered as the first colonists in the New AYorld than the 
first colonists of Europe can be thought to be the tribes which 
conquered the German and other races in the Old World. 

15. The Ruins of Mitla and Palenque. — The nameless 
ruins which are designated by the names of the neighbouring 
cities of Mitla and Palenque (the last-named city being situated 
in the province of Tzendale, near the boundary-line between the 
city of Ciudad Real and Yucatan) have been considered by en- 
thusiastic investigators to date back to a period several thousand 
years before the Christian era. Enthusiasts have found here not 



96 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

only the home of the most intellectual civilization of the New 
World, but also the home of Buddhism.* The Toltecs — a name 
that means "Architects" — aj^peared about the middle of the 
seventh century. One of their literary productions, " The Divine 
Book," had, according to an unconfirmed tradition, been pre- 
served up to the times of the Spaniards.! The Aztecs, on the 
contrary, first came to Anahuac, or " the Land near the Water," 
during the reign of the Emperor Frederick II.J The savage 
conquerors, as was the case with all races at the time of the great 
migrations of the nations of Europe, were at first hostile to both 
the existing religion and the native civilization. In the end, 
however, when the necessity of having the state properly con- 
trolled was forced upon them, they could erect the new structure 
only upon the existing ruins. This is as true in a figurative as 
in a literal sense, and we can learn much of the condition of the 
earlier races in this land by a consideration of the regulations, 
customs, and usages of the Aztecs. The most learned historian 
of New Spain, in harmony with the results of the most recent 
researches, long ago recognized the original connection of the 
numerous languages of Mexico, notwithstanding all their differ- 
ences in single points.* 

The pyramidical, symbolical form of the wonderful monu- 
ments of ancient Mexico apjDcars in truth to have some external 
points of resemblance with the religious structures erected by 
the Buddhists, and the pyramids of the old inhabitants of this 
land served, like those of the Egyptians and Buddhists, as places 
of interment ; but neither their architecture nor their ornamenta- 
tion, if we are to decide from the drawings of Mexican antiqui- 
*^ies, exhibit any East Indian symbol, unless their eight rings or 
stories are considered as such. It is stated in a Buddhist legend 
that the remains of Sakya, after his cremation, were collected in 
eight metallic vessels and as many sacred buildings were erected 
over these. II But if Buddhism ever reigned over Central Ameri- 

* " Antiquites Mexicaines," ii, p. 73 ; " Transactions of the American Anti- 
quarian Society," ii; Prescott, "History of the Conquest of Mexico," Paris, 1844, 
iii, p. 253. f Prescott, i, 67. 

X The chronological estimates of the different historians do not agree with 
one another. Those of the learned Clavigero appear to be always the most reliable, 
however. Prescott, i, 11. 

* Clavigero, "Storia Antica del Mcssico," i, 153. 
11 "Asiatic Researches," xvi, 316. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 97 

ca, it surely can not have been the pure religion of Sakya, as it 
is found to-day in Nepal, Thibet, and other countries of Asia, 
but only a form of a religious belief founded upon the funda- 
mental principles of this doctrine, and changed to adapt it to 
the earlier belief of the people of the New World ; for the mis- 
sionaries of Sakya might be called Jesuits, from the fact that 
they, in order to obtain an easier entrance for their religion and 
its dogmas, either built them up upon the previous customs and 
usages of the country or cunningly mixed the two together. 
The myth of the birth of the terrible Aztec god of war is per- 
haps a faded remnant of the East Indian religion which may 
once have bloomed here. Huitzilopochtli, like Sakya, was begot- 
ten in a wonderful way : his mother saw a ball of glittering 
feathers floating in the air, placed it in her bosom, became preg- 
nant, and bore her terrible son, who, at the time of his birth, had 
a spear in his right hand, a shield in his left, and a waving tuft 
of green feathers upon his head.* Juan de Grijalva, the nephew 
of Yalasquez, was so astonished at the superior civilization of 
the main continent as compared with the islands, and particu- 
larly at the regularity of the buildings, that he, upon this 
account, in 1518, gave to the Peninsula of Yucatan the name 
of "New Spain," a name which soon obtained a much wider 
extension. f 

16. Fu-SANG, Maguey, Agave Americana. — It is known that ,/ 
the flora of the northwestern regions of America is intimately 
connected with that of China, Japan, and other lands in the east- 
ernmost region of the Orient. On this account it may be believed 
that the J'u-sam/ tree was also found in America in earlier times, 
and that from bad management it has since become extinct. The 
tobacco-plant and Indian corn are in a similar way native both 
to China and to the New World.J It appears much more prob- 
able, however, that the traveler, as has not unfrequently occurred 
in other similar cases, when he saw in Mexico a new plant for- 
merly unknown to him, which was used there for many purposes 
in a similar way to the uses made of th.efu-sang tree in Eastern 
Asia, gave to it the name of the well-known Asiatic tree which 
he thought to resemble it. The plant that I mean is the great 

* Clavigero, ii, 19. f Prescott, i, 143. 

X Professor Neumann seems to have made this statement on insufficient au- 
thority.— E. P. V. 
7 



\ 



98 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Mexican Aloe, the Agave Americana, called " Maguey " by the 
natives, which, t])rowing up its pyramidical tuft of flowers 
above the dark circle of its leaves, is foiind in such great abun- 
dance upon the plains of New Spain. From its crushed leaves 
a firm paper is prepared, even up to the present time, as at the 
time when the Aztec kingdom flourished, and the few hiero- 
glyphic manuscripts that have escaped the barbarity and fa- 
naticism of the Spaniards consist of this paper ; and of such 
manuscripts the Buddhist missionary speaks. The flowing sap 
is brewed into an intoxicating drink, which is still liked by the 
people of the country. Its large, stiff leaves serve as firm roofs 
for their low huts, and from the fibers are made all kinds of 
thread, cordage, and rough cloth, "When cooked, the roots form 
a savoury species of food ; and the thorns are used as needles and 
pins. This wonderful plant, therefore, offers not only food and 
drink, but clothing and writing-materials, and, in fact, so satis- 
fies, to a certain degree, every want of the Mexicans, that many 
who are acquainted with the land and its inhabitants are con- 
vinced that the maguey must be rooted out before the sloth and 
indolence of the people — evils which prevent them from reach- 
ing a higher culture and civilization — can be checked.* 

17. Metals and Monet. — The use of iron, although it is 
found so abundantly in New Spain, was, as our traveler has 
justly observed, not known. Copper and bronze were then used 
instead in this country, as they were formerly used in other 
regions of the earth. According to the account of Antonio de 
Herrera, two varieties of copper were prepared, one hard and 
the other soft — of which the first was used for hatchets, cutting- 
instruments, and agricultural implements, and the other for 
kettles and all kinds of household utensils. The inhabitants 
also understood how to work silver, tin, and lead mines ; but 
neither the silver nor the gold, which was found upon the sur- 
face of the earth or in the channels of the rivers, served as the 
usual medium of exchange, and these metals were not especially 
valued in the land. Pieces of tin, in the form of a hammer, and 
packages of cacao containing a certain number of kernels, were 
generally used as money. " Admirable money," exclaims Peter 
Martyr, " which checks avarice ; since it can neither be long 
kept nor safely buried." \ 

* Prescott, i, 63, 87. f Prescott, i, 92. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 99 

18. Laws and Customs of the Aztecs.— The laws of the 
Aztecs were very strict ; but in the few fragments of them which 
are contained in the hieroglyj^hic pictures that we have, we 
find no trace of the regulations described as existing in the 
land of Fic-sang. An hereditary nobility stood, however, at the 
side of Montezuma, divided into several different ranks, con- 
cerning which the historians give contradictory accounts. Zu- 
rita speaks of four ranks of chiefs, who paid no tribute and who 
enjoyed other privileges. * The customs of courtship and mar- 
riage resembled those which exist to-day in Kamtchatka. We 
have no knowledge of the mourning ceremonies of the Aztecs, 
except that their kings had particular palaces in which they 
passed the time of mourning for their nearest relatives. f At the 
festivities in honour of the gods, drums and trumpets were 
sounded ; and this may also have been done by the attendants 
of the king as to the representative of the divinity.^ 

The Aztecs reckoned time by a cycle of fifty-two years, and, 
as is well known, knew very accurately the time of the revolu- 
tion of the earth about the sun. The ten-year cycle mentioned 
in the Chinese account may have been a subdivision of that of 
fifty-two years, or else may have been used as an independent 
method of reckoning time, as is the case with the ten-year cycle 
of the Chinese, who call the signs of the different years " stems." 
It is remarkable that the Mongolians and Mantchoos designate 
these " stems " by words indicating different colours, which fact 
may possibly have some connection with the change of colour in 
the garments of the prince of Fic-scmg in the different years of 
the cycle. * Among the Tartarian tribes the first two years of 
the ten are called green and greenish, the next two red and 
reddish, the two following yellow and yellowish, the next two i 
white and whitish, and, finally, the last two black and blackish. 
It appears impossible, however, to bring this cycle of the Aztecs 
into any connection with those of the Asiatic tribes, who usually 
reckon time by periods of sixty years. 

19. Domestic Animals.— The Aztecs have no draught ani- 
mals or beasts of burden, and it is well known that horses were 
not found in any part of the New World, and the account of 

* Prescott, i, 18. | Mithridates, ui, 3-33. 

X Bernal Diaz, " Hist, de la Conquista," pp. 152, 153 ; Prescott, iii, 87, 97. 
* Gaubil, " Observations Mathematiques," Paris, 1732, ii, 135. 



100 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the Chinese traveler certainly is not applicable to the later 
Mexican monarchies. Two species of oxen with large horns 
ranged in herds in the plains of the Rio del Norte before the 
arrival of the Spaniards.* These may have been tamed by the 
earlier inhabitants and used as domestic animals. Stags' horns 
have also been found in the ruins of Mexican buildings, and 
Montezuma showed the Spaniards enormous horns as curiosities.f 
It is possible that in earlier times stags ranged farther south than 
at present and that their range extended from Upper California 
and other regions of North America, in which they are still 
found in large herds, as far as to the regions of Central America. 
An inhabitant of China would naturally think it very strange 
to see butter made from the milk of the hinds, as milk is 
rarely used in China even up to the present day. When the 
inhabitants of Chu-san saw that the English sailors milked 
goats, even grave, elderly men could not restrain their laughter 
at the sight. Moreover, the Chinese traveler may have used the 
character " ma " (or " horse ") to designate some animal resem- 
bling a horse ; for changes of this kind frequently occur in simi- 
lar accounts. In the same way the names of many animals of 
the Old World have been applied to similar animals in the New 
World which belong to quite different species. The eastern 
limits of the Asiatic Continent are also the limits of the native 
country of the horse ; and it furthermore appears that this ani- 
mal was first introduced into Japan from Corea in the third cen- 
tury of our era.J But no matter from what source the error in 
regard to American horses may have come, the unprejudiced 
and circumspect inquirer will not be induced merely upon this 
account to declare the whole story regarding Fusang-Mexico to 
be an idle tale. It appears to me that this description of the 
countries upon the western coast of America, in the Annual 
Register of the Chinese Empire, is at least as credible as the 
account contained in -the Icelandic Sagas of the discovery of the 
eastern shores of the New World. 

20. Chinese and Japanese in the Hawaiian Group and in 

* Ilumboldt, " Neu-Spanien," iii, 138. 

f Ilumboldt, " Neu-Spanicn," ii, 243. 

X Nippon-Tci — i. e., " Annual Registers of the Kingdom of Japan." In the 
entry for the year 284 it is said : " In this year borses were brought from Corea " j 
but it is not especially stated that they were the first in Japan. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. IQI 

Northwestern America. — In support of the theory of an early 
communication of China and Japan with the islands between 
Asia and America and with the western coast of this division of 
the earth, even though such communication may have been only 
accidental, a number of facts of modern date may be adduced. 
Even if the Chinese and the Japanese, who, by virtue of their 
knowledge of the compass since the earliest date of their his- 
tory, would find such a voyage not to be particularly difficult, 
never intentionally undertook any voyages by sea to America, 
yet it may have happened, as it still happens, that ships from 
Eastern Asia, China, and Japan, as well as those of Russians 
from Ochotsk and Kamtchatka,* were thrown upon the islands 
and coast of the New World. The earliest Spanish travelers 
and explorers heard of foreign merchants who had landed upon 
the northwestern coast of America, and even claimed to have 
seen fragments of a Chinese ship, f We also know that the 
crew of a Japanese junk accidentally discovered a great conti- 
nent in the East, wintered there, and then safely returned home. 
The Japanese stated that the land extended farther to the north- 
west.J They may have passed the winter in the neighbourhood 
of California, and have discovered the coast farther north, to- 
gether with the Peninsula of Alaska. 

A Japanese ship was wrecked, about the end of the year 1832, 
upon Oahu, one of the Sandwich Islands, of which the Hawaiian 
" Spectator " contained the following detailed account : " This 
Japanese ship had nine men on board, who were carrying fish 
to Jeddo from one of the southerly islands of the ' Eastern King- 
dom.' A storm drove them into the open sea, where they drifted 
about for ten or eleven months, until they finally (in December, 
1832) landed in the port of Waiala, upon the island of Oahu. 
The ship sank, but the men were saved and brought to Hono- 
lulu, where they remained for eighteen months, and then, in 
accordance Avith their own desires, sailed for Kamtchatka, hop- 
ing to be able to slip quietly from this country into their native 
land." For the terribly barbarous government of Japan, remem- 

* An account of a Russian ship which was driven upon the coast of California 
in 1761 may be found in the "Travels of Several Missionaries of the Society of 
Jesus in America," Nuremberg, 1*785, p. 337. 

t Torquemada, " Mon. Ind.," iii, 7 ; Acosta, " Hist, Nat. Amer.," iii, 12. 

I Kaempfer, " Geschichte von Japan," Lemgo, 1777, i, 82. 



102 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

bering even to this day the evil artifices of the Portuguese Jesuits, 
and fearing the secret plots of the neighbouring Russians, prohib- 
ited even its own unfortunate shipwrecked subjects from re- 
turning to their native land. " When the people of Hawaii," so 
continues the " Spectator," " saw these foreigners so closely re- 
sembling them in external form and in many customs and 
usages, they were much astonished, and unanimously declared, 
* There can be no farther room for doubt. We came from 
Asia.' " * 

Another instance of a Japanese ship in America and of the 
former inconsiderate iron policy of the Japanese government is 
as follows : During the winter of 1833-'34 a junk from Japan 
suffered shipwreck upon the northwest coast of America in the 
neighbourhood of Queen Charlotte's Island. The numerous 
members of the crew, weakened by hunger, were, with the ex- 
ception of two persons, murdered by the natives. The Hudson's 
Bay Company took charge of these unfortunate beings, and in 
1834 sent them to England, from which country they were sent 
on to Macao. This was considered as a fortunate occurrence, as 
it was hoped that the government at Jeddo would show some 
gratitude for this humane treatment of its subjects, and possibly 
give up its policy of j^rohibiting the entry of foreigners into the 
kingdom. The ship which it was intended should restore these 
subjects to the rulers of the "Eastern Kingdom," and at the 
same time extend the doctrines of the Christian religion to Japan 
(for Carl Guetzlaff was on board), was received with cannon- 
balls, and compelled to leave the coast of the inhospitable land, 
with its intended good work unperformed. 

All these different facts sufficiently prove that a Toyage to 
America and the neighbouring islands, on the part of some of 
the people who shared in the Chinese civilization, can not have 
been a very infrequent occurrence. And, upon the other side, 
the inhabitants of these islands may, in their frail canoes, have 
accidentally or intentionally landed from time to time upon the 
Asiatic Continent. " It is wonderful," says the Jesuit Hierony- 
mus d'Angelis, who in 1680 was the first European to visit 

* " Hawaiian Spectator," i, 296, quoted in Belcher's " Voyage Round the 
World," London, 1843, i, 304; Jarvis's "History of the Sandwich Islands," Lon- 
don, 1843, 27. According to a tradition of the people of the islands, several such 
ships had been wrecked upon Hawaii before the arrival of the whites. 



NEUMANN'S MONOGRAPH. 103 

Jesso,* "how bold these people are, and how expert in naviga- 
tion. In their defective boats they undertake voyages occupy- 
ing from two to three months, and, however many may perish 
at sea, new adventurers are always found to undertake the same 
bold risks." 

Since the opening of Japan to other nations and its entrance 
into the affairs of the world, the state of facts outlined above is 
of course entirely changed. Voyages from Eastern Asia to 
Western America and back are now of common, almost of daily, 
occurrence. The large Japanese Embassy, which came to Wash- 
ington by the way of the Hawaiian Islands and California in 
1860, is fully describe'd in my " History of Eastern Asia," and 
is still held in fresh remembrance, f 

* P. Dan Bartolli, " Dell' Historia della Compagnia di Giesu," Rome, 1640, v, 
71. D'Angelis himself designed a map of Jesso. 

f " Ost-Asiatische Geschichte, vom Ersten Chinesischen Krieg bis zu den Ver- 
tragen zu Peking" (1S40-1860), Ton Karl Friedrich Neumann, Leipzig, 1861, 
335 pp. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ARGUMENTS OF MM. PEREZ AXD GODRON. 

Knowledge of America possessed by the Chinese — The Country of Women — Other 
travelers relate incredible stories — Klaproth's argument — The account con- 
tained in the Japanese Encyclopaedia — Note denying that Fusang is Japan — 
Weakness of Klaproth's argument — Identity of names of cities in Asia and 
America — American languages — Resemblance of the Tartars to the Abo- 
rigines of America — Similitude of customs — A Buddhist mission to America 
in the fifth century — The Chinese able to measure distances, and possessed of 
the compass — The musk-oxen and bisons of America — Horses — Names of 
European animals misapplied to American animals — The "horse-deer" of 
America — Vines — The difficulty in identifying the fusang tree — Iron and 
copper in America and Japan. 

Memoir upon the Melations of the Americans in Former Times 
toith the Nhtions of Europe, Asia, and Africa — Sectlo7i en- 
titled, ^'- Knoioledge possessed by the Chinese in the Fourth 
Century of our Era " — by M. Jose Perez, D. M. ™** 

The question as to whether or not the people of Eastern 
Asia, at the time above named, had any communication with the 
natives of any part of America, appears to be worthy of the 
careful investigation of scholars. An unexpected discovery has 
thrown light upon this subject ; and, following the authority of 
some writers and the criticisms of others, it appears evident that 
the New World was known in former times to the Chinese and 
Japanese. Before engaging in a discussion regarding the authors 
who have thought that the country of Fi-sang should be iden- 
tified with America, it is indispensable to place the steps of the 
process by which their conclusion was reached under the eyes 
of the reader, without taking part in the perversion of facts for 
the benefit of aily theory whatever, as has unfortunately been 
done to the injury of the solution of the problem which now 
occupies us. 



THE ARGUMENT OF M. PEREZ. 105 

It- was in 1761 that de Guignes published his justly cele- 
brated memoir, in which, after identifying several nations of the 
extreme East, mentioned by the Chinese accounts, and particu- 
larly that of Ta-han, which he placed, with reason, in the most 
eastern part of Siberia, this learned Sinologue made known to 
the astonished scientific world the Chinese descriptions of the 
famous country of Fa-sang, in which he recognized a part of 
North America. This continent, say the writers of the Celestial 
Empire, is situated twenty thousand li to the east of the country 
of Ta-han. The king bears the title of Y-chi, and the chiefs of 
the nation beneath him are the great and petty Tui-lu and the 
Na-to-sha. "The historian from whom Ma Twan-lin copies 
this account," says de Guignes, " adds that the Chinese had no 
knowledge of the country of Fu-sang before the year 458, and 
to the present time I have seen no other than these two writers 
who give any extended account of it. Some authors of diction- 
aries who mention it, merely say that it is situated in the region 
where the sun rises. " The situation of Fu-sang, clearly described 
in the accounts, and the great distance which separates it from 
China, to the east of which country it lies — a distance stated in 
precise terms by the Chinese geographers — appear to positively 
prove that this country can not be contained in Asia, even within 
its utmost bounds. Moreover, the Chinese historians, as de 
Guignes has remarked, also speak of another country a thousand 
// farther east than Fu-sang, a country called " the Kingdom of 
Women." The account which is given of it is, it is true, full of 
fables ; but that merely proves that this last country marked one 
of the extreme limits of their geographical knowledge, and that 
it was a land of which they had but very imperfect accounts, 
analogous to those which the travelers of the Middle Ages gave 
regarding the eastern countries which they reached. Does not 
even Marco Polo himself, whose intellectual superiority and the 
value of whose geographical statements it is now the fashion to 
exaggerate beyond all reason, relate to us the most incredible 
stories regarding countries in which he lived ? . . . 

The Chinese account of " the Kingdom of Women " is written 
with no less intelligence and sincerity than the European works 
of the Middle Ages of which we have spoken, and that which 
appears to us to be fabulous might well seem true if it were better 
explained. It is evident that the author did not intend to say 



lOG AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

that it was the river of this country which caused the women's 
pregnancy, but merely that the baths taken in its waters were 
favourable to them when in that condition, which is moreover 
proved by the following phrase, where it is said that they gave 
birth to their young four months after having taken these baths ; 
and as for the Avhite locks which they had at the back of the 
head, by which they nursed their children, the account is ex- 
plained very easily by a custom, common in India and elsewhere, 
by which the women nurse their children over their shoulders. 
Finally, de Guignes mentions, as an additional proof in support 
of his theory, the shipwreck in 507 a. d. of a Chinese vessel 
upon the shores of an unknown island situated at a great dis- 
tance in the Pacific Ocean. The women of this country resem- 
bled those of China, and the men made themselves understood 
by barking, undoubtedly like the noise made by the T8en§as 
in Louisiana in the presence of their king, in order to do him 
honour. 

From all these facts it appeared indisputable to the learned 
Sinologue that the Chinese had penetrated very far into the Pa- 
cific Ocean, if they had not traveled over it, and that they had 
sufiicient boldness to go to California in the year 458 a. d. . . . 

Klaproth, the famous Orientalist, having much learning, but 
even more envy, did not wish that any one should have greater 
credit than himself for Chinese scholarship, and thought it pos- 
sible to plunge de Guignes's celebrated discovery into forget- 
fulness by stuffing it into a mattress of paradoxes quite filled 
with wonderful statements. ... As to the great distance which 
exists, according to the shaman's account, between this unknown 
country and China, Klaproth takes a lesson from the trick of 
decipherers who fail either to understand an entii'e inscription or 
some of its words : he finds errors in the original document. 

" The distances named in the accounts," says he, " much ex- 
ceed the truth " (that is to say, the hypothesis of the Prussian 
Sinologue), "and the Chinese had no means of determining the 
length of their cruises at sea." Finally, to make it impossible 
to identify Fu-sang with any part of America, Klaproth con- 
ceives the ruse of finding a place upon the map for the country 
of Wen-shin. After having consigned these unfortunate "Tat- 
tooed Men " to the island of Jesso, he writes, quite satisfied with 
himself : "The identity of Ta-han and the island of Tarakai, 



THE ARGUMENT OF M. PEREZ. 107 

once demonstrated, prevents all further search for the country 
of Fu-sang in America," Then, viewing his fanciful argument 
more and more complacently, he adds : " We must, therefore, 
reject the entire tale as to Fu-sang as fabulous, or else find a 
means of reconciling it loith the truth. This may be found by 
supposing the indication of the direction as toward the east to 
be incorrect. We may, therefore, presume that one goes directly 
east in order to pass the Strait of Perouse in skirting the north- 
ern coast of Jesso, but that upon arriving at the eastern point of 
this island the course turns to the south and leads us to the 
southeastern part of Japan, which was the country called Fu- 
sang. It was, in fact, one of the ancient names of this empire." 
We will soon consider the attention that should be given to all 
this arguing, but will now return to the original source from 
which proceeds all the information given to us regarding the 
country in which we are interested. Several accounts of Fu- 
sang are in existence, but they are evidently derived one from 
another, and all have a common origin. Our limits do not per- 
mit us to reproduce those which have been successively trans- 
lated by de Guignes and Klaproth, but we will give here the 
account of this country which is contained in the large and cele- 
brated Japanese Encyclopaedia, entitled Wa-Jca)i-san-sai-dzou-ye 
(vol. xiv), which M. de Rosny has kindly translated from the 
original expressly for our work. This notice is merely an abridg- 
ment of the accounts formerly mentioned, but it possesses the 
inestimable advantage over the latter, of making known to us 
the clearly expressed opinion of the Japanese editor upon this 
question. As it is with Japan that Klaproth identifies the coun- 
try of Fu-sang, this opinion can not fail to be of great weight in 
the balance. The following is the translation of this notice : 

Fou-s6 (in Chinese, Fu-sang). — The Encyclopaedia, entitled 
San-sai-dzoii-ye, says : 

" The country of Fou-so is situated at the east of the coun- 
try of Tai-han. According to the authority of the work en- 
titled Fou7ig-tien, Fou-so is distant from the country of Tai-kan 
in an easterly direction about 20,000 //. It is placed to the east 
of the * Middle Kingdom ' (China). Many trees, called fou-s6- 
mok {Hibiscus rasa /Sinoisis), are found there.* Their leaves 

* la Japanese, " Sono-(soutsi-ni fou-so-mok ohosl.^^ " In banc terram fou-so 
(sic vocitatse) arborcs multee sunt." 



4 



108 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

are similar to those of the ^o-tree ; when they are young they 
are like bamboo-sprouts, and the natives eat them. Their fruits 
'are like pears, and are of a red colour. The fiber of the bark is 
drawn out to make cloth from which clothing is made. Planks 
made from the tree are employed to build their houses. 

"In this country there are no cities. The natives have a 
method of writing, and they make clothing {sic) from the bark 
of the fou-sd tree. They have no offensive weapons or defen- 
sive armour, and do not wage wars. 

" They give to their king the name of Kild-zin, that is to 
say, ' the most honourable man.' When the latter walks abroad 
he is accompanied with drums and trumpets. At different peri- 
ods of the year he changes the colour of his garments. In the 
cyclic years kia and i they are blue ; in the years ping and ting 
they are red, etc. 

"The natives raise deer, as cattle are raised, and prepare 
breamy dishes from the milk of the animals. 

" In this country there is no iron, but there is copper. Gold 
and silver are not valued. In the markets no duties are levied. 
The rules for the observance of the marriage-ceremony are in 
general the same as those of the 'Middle Kingdom' (China). In 
the second year of the period, called ta-ining (or ' great light '), 
the year 458 of our era, under the reign of the emperor Hiao 
Wu-ti* of the Sung dynasty, five hhilcshus (mendicant priests) of 
the country of Ki-pin, in their travels reached Fou-so, and com- 
menced to propagate Buddhism there." The editor of the Wa- 
kan-san-sai-dzou-ye adds the following comment : 

" Note. — It is not now certainly known what to think re- 
garding the country of Fou-so, which is said to be to the east of 
China and also to the east of the country of Tai-Jcan. It is 
therefore uncertain whether the country to which the bonzes of 
the country of Ki-pin went, carrying the doctrine of Buddha, 
is situated to the north or to the east of Japan. In any case, 
it is wrong to think that the account refers to Japan, and the 
statement that Fou-sd may be another name of Japan is incor- 
rect." The Japanese author adds in a note : " Jfi-pin is one 
of the western countries (Si-gii). It is San-jna-cell-han^^ (Sa- 
marcand). 

* This priace of the Pch Sung, or Northern Sung dynasty, reigned from 454 to 
465 A. D. The period ta-ming is comprised between the years 457 and 464. 



THE ARGUMENT OF M. PEREZ. 109 

To this account, and as before to serve as the foundation 
of our argument, we will add the translation which M. de 
Rosny has also kindly made for us of the notices of the great 
Japanese Encyclopsedia of the countries of JBoun-zm and Tai- 
Tcan. 

Boux-ziN (in Chinese, Wen-shin'). — The Encyclopaedia, en- 
titled San-sai-dzou-ye, says : "The productions of the country of 
Boun-zin (Men with Tattooed Bodies) are of very little value. 
In the inns no food is found. The dwelling of the king is orna- 
mented with gold and gems. In the markets, traffic is carried 
on by means of precious objects." 

Tai-kan (in Chinese, Ta-han). — The Encyclopedia, entitled 
San-sai-dzou-ye, says : " In the country of Tai-kan there are 
no armies, and war is not waged. The people are similar to 
those of Boun-zin (the Men with Tattooed Bodies), but their 
language is different. 

"Some people say that the country of Tai-kan is situated to 
the east of the country of Boun-zin, at a distance of about five 
thousand UP 

Having laid these documents before our readers, we will now 
attempt to discuss the arguments that have been urged against 
the identification of the country of Fu-sang, or Fou-so, with 
America. First of all, we find, in the account translated by M. 
de Rosny, a passage which completely annihilates the hypothesis, 
otherwise so gratuitous as we see, of the Prussian scholar, ac- 
cording to which Fu-sang was one of the names of Japan. " In 
any case," says the Japanese author of the great Encyclopse- 
dia, " it is wrong to think that the account refers to Japan, and 
the statement that Fou-so (or Fu-sang) may be another name of 
Japan is incorrect." I will add that, after the statement of such 
an authority, it hardly seems necessary to further refute the im- 
aginary system invented by Klaproth to compensate for the pov- 
erty of his cause, since M. de Rosny has been unable to find in 
any of the Japanese-Chinese dictionaries of his excellent col- 
lection anything which can justify the statement made by the 
German scholar, that Fu-sang is another name for Japan. Then, 
if we admit that Fu-sang is the same as Japan, it is necessary to 
find between this last country and China another country, Ta- 
han, inhabited by savages with tattooed bodies and so slightly 
advanced in knowledge as not to have arms of any nature — 



110 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

which is expressly contradicted by our historical and geographi- 
cal knowledge. 

It is also necessary to find to the east of Japan, and not 
in America, another country, N'm-jin-hwoh, which one of the 
most famous Chinese works, the Peu-tsao-kang-mouh, places to 
the east of the country of Fu-sang, which is again impossible. 
Then it is necessary to admit, as Klaproth wishes, that the author 
of the description of Fu-sang must have been deceived as to the 
distance of twenty thousand U which separated this remote coun- 
try from the lands known at this time ; as also that he must have 
been mistaken when he said that Buddhism had been introduced 
there in the year 458 a. d., since it did not reach Japan until a 
century later ; he must also have been mistaken in his mention 
of the tree which gave its name to Fu-sang, for, according to 
Klaproth, " there is some error in the Chinese account, which 
confounds the hibiscus (or the rose of China) with the paper- 
mulberry, or Morus papyrifera^'' etc., etc. 

Once admitting that in the place of the hypothesis, at least very 
probable at first sight, so skillfully presented by M. de Guignes, 
another hypothesis absolutely inadmissible is proposed to us, let 
us consider the weight that should be given the objections of 
Klaproth against the identification of Fu-sang with America. 

We have seen that Klaproth thought that he had found a 
serious objection in the grapes which the Chinese voyagers 
found in Fu-sang ; but this objection can not now be admitted. 
By a singular oversight he forgets that the forests of North 
America abound in wild vines of several species, and that the 
Scandinavians had placed Vin-land, or the " Land of Wine," in 
its northeastern part ; he thinks that Fu-sang may have been 
Japan, where, he says, the vine has existed from times imme- 
morial, although the Chinese did not introduce it from Western 
Asia until the year 126 before our era. 

In addition to all that precedes, a multitude of petty particu- 
lars are also presented, which, by their significant number, suffice 
to convince the most unwilling that America must have received 
colonies from Asia. We will mention only a few of these par- 
ticulars, reserving the others to communicate hereafter to those 
who are not persuaded that to discuss the matter further is but 
to labour at demolishing open gates. We not only find in Amer- 
ica the grand distinctive traits of the nations of the extreme 



THE ARGUMENT OF M. PEREZ. m 

Orient, but we see that at some remote epoch the Asiatics had 
given to the cities of the New World the same names as the 
cities of their mother country, as the Europeans did when they 
gave to the western cities of the New World the names of New 
York, New Orleans, New Brunswick (sic), etc. So the name 
of the famous Japanese city of Ohosaka, to the west of the Pa- 
cific, has become Oaxaca, i n Me xico, upon its eastern side. For- 
merly there were the same names of nations or of tribes, which 
we find with the most striking resemblance upon the two sides 
of the Pacific, as, for example, the Chan, a tribe living in the 
neighbourhood of Palenque, of which the name signifies "Ser- 
pent." * The identical name being found again in Indo-Chinajf 
in the country of the Nagas, " Serpents," Nachan, " the City of 
the Serpents," in America, corresponds with the Cambodian 
Nakhorchan " the City of Serpents." It is suflicient to add that, 
in glancing over an old map of Mexico, the geographical names 
of several different provinces are found, and among them names 
which betray a Chinese origin at first sight, such as Mi-choa-kan, 
Ko-li-man, Te-koua-na-pan, etc. The name which the Otomis 
give to their language, " Hiang-hioung," is not less convincing, 
and it is known that these Indians are included among the oldest 
populations of Central America. Grammatical affinities, not less 
remarkable, are established between different idioms of the Old 
and the New World. In several languages, both of Greenland 
and of Brazil, a special form of negative conjugation is found ; 
and in the Moska and the Arawack the negation is interposed 
between the root of the verb and its terminations, as is the case 
in the Turkish and the other Tartarian dialects. In Guarani, in 
Chiquito, and in Quichua, as in Tagala and Mantchoo, there 
exists a pronoun of the first person plural, excluding those who 
are addressed, and another which includes these last. The con- 
jugation of the languages of the plateau of Anahuac recalls in 
most of its details the conjugations of the Basque and the Hun- 
garian verbs. 

The type of the different Indian nations is astonishingly 
similar to the Mongolian type. M. Ledyard, who has had the 
advantage of studying the American race in the countries in 

* See the Abb6 Brasscur de Bourbourg's " Popol Vuh," p. civ. 
f See the notice of these nations given by Yule, " Narrative of the Mission 
sent to the Court of Ava in 1S55." 



112 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

which its members live, and who has also undertaken ethno- 
graphic researches in Siberia, was so much struck with this truth 
that he wrote to Jefferson : " I shall never be able to inform you 
how closely the Tartars resemble the aborigines of America, both 
in a general way and circumstantially." * At the south the 
Chiriquanos, a Peruvian tribe, present analogies not less strik- 
ing. " If I should see these Indians in Europe," said M. Temple, 
in speaking of them, "with their coppery tint approaching sal- 
lowness, with their long hair brilliantly black, and with their 
lack of beard, I should assuredly take them for Chinese, such is 
the close resemblance between these nations in their traits." f 
Another traveler, John Bell, said there were no other tribes in 
the world which had so striking a resemblance to one another as 
that of the natives of Canada to the Tunguses.J Alex, von Hum- 
boldt goes much further. He mentions a monument discovered 
in Canada, nine hundred leagues from Montreal, upon which was 
found an inscription in Tartarian characters.* 

Similitude of customs, which may be supposed the result of 
chance, but which may rather be the effect of another cause, are 
not less striking. The form of the teo-calli, " the house of the 
divinity," among the Mexicans, singularly resembles that of the 
pagodas with steeples, of Barmany and of Siam ; and the relig- 
ious ceremonies which were practiced there are not less analogous 
to the Brahmanic ceremonies than the figure of the Mexican god, 
Quetzalcoatl, is to that of the Indian Buddha. In closing this part 
of my memoir, I shall be contented to remind my readers of 
the fact that numerous scholars have called attention to resem- 
blances between America and Asia, in the customs and institu- 
tions of the nations of the two continents, which an intelligent 
critic can not mistake for those which are merely the effect of 
chance. 

Those who are interested in these questions may consult with 
profit the writings of Garcia, Hugo, Grotius, Fischer, Acosta, 
Brerewood, and Pennant, as well as many other erudite works bet- 
ter known, which it is therefore less necessary to mention here. 

* Sparks's " Life of Ledyard," p. 66. 

■)• Temple, "Travels in Peru," vol. ii, p. 184. 

X "Travels to Various Parts of Asia," 1*788, vol. i, p. 280. See also the 
" Transactions of the American Ethnological Society," vol. i, 1845, p. 175. 

* " Tableaux de la Nature," vol. i. 



1 



THE ARGUMENT OF M. GODRON. 113 

A Buddhist Mission to America in the Fifth Century of the 
Christian Era — hy Dr. A. Godron, President of the Acad- 
emy of Sciences of Nancy }^^^ 

The Europeans were certainly not tlie first navigators who 
landed upon the American Continent after the commencement 
of the Christian era. Before the voyage of Columbus to the 
New World, before the visits of the Basques to Newfoundland, 
even before the times, between the ninth and fourteenth centu- 
ries, when the Norwegians undertook their bold excursions to 
America and established settlements there, the Asiatics certainly 
had knowledge of this immense continent. 

It is not my intention to discuss in this article all the proofs 
which might be presented in support of this statement — to these 
I will return hereafter ; but for the present I propose to examine 
only the account of a visit of Buddhist missionaries to America, 
which was made in the fifth century of the Christian era, 

[Here follows a resume of the statements and arguments of 
previous writers upon the subject. M. Godron continues :] 

As to the point raised by M. Klaproth, that the Chinese did 
not possess means of measuring the distances of their journeys 
accurately and of determining their direction, it may be ob- 
served that we possess a document which disproves this asser- 
tion, and which is the more curious from the fact that it came 
from Klaproth himself. It proves that the Chinese, even in the 
times of remote antiquity, were no novices in the art of measur- 
ing distances and fixing their direction. Reference is made to 
a letter upon the invention of the compass, which he addressed 
to von Humboldt, and of which this celebrated traveler pub- 
lished extracts.* 

Speaking of the voyages from China to India by the way of 

the Bolor, which he had been discussing, Klaproth states that 

the accounts of these journeys are worthy of the more confidence 

from the fact that the compass had long been employed by the 

Chinese. He adds that Sse-ma-tscian, a Chinese historian who 

lived at the time of the destruction of the Bactrian Empire 

by Mithradates, gives the following account : " The Emperor 

Tz^-ing-wang, 1,110 years before the Christian f .a, gave a pres- 

* Alex, von Humboldt, "Asie Centrale." Paris, 1843, in 8to; vol. i, Intro- 
duction, p. 40. 



114 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ent to the embassadors of Tong-Mng and Cochin-China. They 
feared that they would not be able to retrace the way back 
to their country, and the emperor therefore gave them five 
magnetic chariots which pointed to the south by means of the 
movable arm of a small figure covered- with a feather-robe." 
Adding to these chariots an odometer, that is to say, a mechan- 
ism by which another small figure strikes a blow upon a drum 
or bell each time that the chariot has passed over the distance of 
a Chinese li^ we then have an indication of the direction of the 
road, and a means of measuring the distance passed over. " In 
the third century of our era," adds Klaproth, "the Chinese ships 
were steered upon the Indian Ocean according to the indications 
of a magnetic needle. In order to avoid friction, and to give a 
freer movement to the needle, it has been supposed that they al- 
lowed it to float upon water. This was the aquatic compass of 
the Chinese and the magnetic fish of the ancient Indian pilots." 

We, therefore, see that Klaproth was perfectly well informed 
upon the subject, and may well feel surprised at his remarks in 
regard to the voyages to Fu-sang. If the scientific honesty of 
a scholar of his rank were not sheltered from all criticism, it 
might readily be believed that he was forced to mislead the 
Chinese navigators in order to prevent their arrival in America, 
and to compel them to land in Japan. 

But this consideration did not limit the criticisms which the 
scholarly Prussian Orientalist made regarding the theories of de 
Guignes. He picks to pieces the description which the Bud- 
dhist monk Hoei Shin gives of the country of Fu-sang. He finds 
a new source of objection in the nomenclature of the animals 
and vegetation described as existing in this country. Accord- 
ing to him, cattle and horses did not exist in America until they 
were imported by the Spaniards. The vine and wheat were un- 
known before the conquest. He, therefore, arrives at the con- 
clusion that the description of Fu-sang is not applicable to 
America. These new difficulties are not more serious than those 
which have preceded. 

No zoologist denies that two species of cattle were found 
native in North America. One of these is the musk-ox [Bos 
moschatos), which goes in small herds of twenty to thirty in- 
dividuals in the frigid regions which border upon the Arctic 
circle, between the 60th and 73d degrees of north latitude, 



THE ARGUMENT OF M. GODROX, 115 

and which can not be referred to here. The other is the bison 
{JBos Amerlcanus), which goes in herds that are often ex- 
tremely numerous, which are found in the temperate regions 
of Xorth America, and which in winter migrate farther south. 
These cattle were certainly found in the region which the Chi- 
nese of the fifth century knew by the name of Fu-sang, and 
which must correspond to Xew California. They also existed 
in abundance in the sixteenth century in the kingdom of Cibola 
and the country of Quivera. The first Spanish conquerors who 
penetrated into this country called them vaccas, and these ani- 
mals were a precious and abundant resource for them. 

One of these " conquistadores,''' P. de Castaneda de Xogera, de- 
scribed them in a manner which it is impossible to misunderstand.* 

According to Gomara, there existed at the same time, in the 
northwestern part of Mexico, a population whose principal wealth 
consisted in domestic bisons.f 

It is perfectly true that horses were imported into America 
from Europe. If the Buddhist monks stated that they were 
found in Fu-scmg, it must have been because of the natural tend- 
ency of a man who arrives in a new country to assimilate the 
animals which he finds there to those which he has seen in his 
native land, and many examples of this tendency might easily be 
cited. To confine ourselves to America, it is known that the in- 
vaders of the Xew "^orld applied the names of European animals 
to the animals found in America, being guided by the general 
resemblance, which was often very remote, in the selection of 
the particular name. Thus, they called the llamas "big sheep," 
because they were covered with wool ; the peccaries they called 
" hogs," remarking, it is true, that they were smaller than our 
hogs. Turkeys were in their eyes " hens," which were larger 
than those of Spain. The Buddhist missionaries might have 
even found sheep in the country of Fu-sang, if they had pene- 
trated farther into the mountains. 

P. de Castaneda de Nogera saw animals near Chichilticale, 
to which he applied this name. J He referred to a species of 

* P. de Castaneda de Nogera, " Relation du Voyage de Cibola entrcpres en 
1540," in tlie collection of Teraaux-Compans. Paris, in 8vo ; vol. ix (1838), 
p. 237. 

f Gomara, " Historia General de las Indias." Medina, 1558, in 8vo, chap, ccxiy. 

X See his work cited above, p. 54. 



116 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

mountain-goat, the Musimon montanus, whicli is found in these 
regions up to the present day. 

But what zoological type existed upon the western coast of 
North America to which the Buddhist missionaries gave the 
name of the horse ? Was it not the same species of which the 
Spaniards, during their expeditions into the same country, saw 
such numerous individuals, which they called horse-deer; animals 
remarkable for their great height, and bearing large and branch- 
ing antlers ? * This appears extremely probable. These Spanish 
adventurers were no more naturalists than the Buddhist monks 
of whom we have spoken. The name was undoubtedly applied 
to the elk, because it stands as high as a horse, and the female 
is without horns. Even the males shed their horns every year, 
and, when without these ornaments, they may easily have been 
mistaken at a distance for horses. Moreover, the Spaniards 
made a broad distinction between these " horse-deer " and the 
common deer which they shot in the same part of America, 

Several species of vines are indigenous to North America, 
and they gi'ow in a wild state. The Norwegians, in the year 
1000, when exploring the eastern coast of the continent near the 
forty-first degree, north latitude, gave the name of Vinland to 
the country for this reason, f But this does not sufiice to prove 
that this plant existed also upon the western coast fifty-two de- 
grees of longitude farther west. 

But the Spaniards observed vines in 1540 in the coimtry of 
Cibola and Quivera, notably among the Teyas and the Querechos, 
They found the grapes of an agreeable flavor, and ate both them 
and red j)lums, J 

It is therefore no occasion for astonishment to learn that the 
Buddhist missionaries saw vines in the country of Fu-sang. 

The Spanish conquerors also found a cereal abundantly culti- 
vated by the natives in the same part of North America, and in 
several of their accounts they give it the name of " wheat " 

* L. Cabiera de Cordove, " Histoire de Phillippe II, Roi d'Espagne," in the col- 
lection of Ternaux-Compans, vol. x, p. 444. 

f C. Christ. Rafn, " Memoire sur la Decouverte de I'Amerique au x* Siecle." 
Copenhagen, 1845, in 4to, p. 13. 

\ P. de Castafieda de Nogera, in the work cited, vol. ix, pp. 125 and 278. 
Juan Jarancllo, " Relation du Voyage fait h, la Nouvelle Terre par Vasquez de 
Coronado," in the collection of Ternaux-Compans, vol. ix, p. 3Y8. 



THE ARGUMENT OF M. GODRON". I17 

{trigo), and in others it is designated by the name of maize, 
which has been preserved for it. Need we wonder that the Bud- 
dhist monks should have availed themselves of the name appli- 
cable to wheat to designate this precious cereal ? Do not the 
French peasants even now call it Turkish wheat, or Roman 
wheat ? * 

But what is that tree which is covered with red, pear-shaped 
fruit, and which furnishes the natives with the raw material from 
which their cloth is made ? Some authors have thought this to be 
the Hibiscus rosa Sinensis ; others, the Broussonetia papyrifera. 
We can not admit either of these views to be correct. The Hi- 
hiscus rosa Sinensis is, as its name indicates, a native of China. 
The Broussonetia grows in China and Japan and in the islands 
of Polynesia, but not in America. 

We do not know to what botanical species the tree men- 
tioned by the Chinese historian should be referred ; but the 
failure to decide this question does not furnish the least ob- 
jection in regard to the geographical position of the country of 
Fu-sang. 

Iron was unknown in this last country, and in fact the natives 
of North America were ignorant of the existence of this valuable 
metal. It was certainly used in Japan before the fifth century ; 
and this fact alone is sufficient to show that the country of 
Fu-sang can not, as Klaproth wishes, be identified with the 
great island of Japan. The Americans, on the contrary, were ac- 
quainted with the use of copper, and made tools from it before 
the arrival of the Europeans. Native copper exists in several 
countries of the New World, and it is found in great abundance 
near Lake Superior, where it is still mined. Along the southern 
shore of this lake, Mr. Knapp, Superintendent of the Minnesota 
Mining Company, discovered in 1840 a great number of galleries 
often from seven to nine meters in depth, and of an extent equal 
to about the same number of kilometers. These excavations 
were the work of the early indigenes, the proof of this assertion 
having been found by clearing out the trenches. Very many 
stone mallets and hammers were found, and also wooden shov- 
els and a great quantity of pottery made without the aid of 

* The account of Fu-sang says nothing about wheat. It seems probable that 
Dr. Godron had in mind the wheat mentioned by the Northmen as found in Vin- 
land, and that, writing from memory, he confused the two accounts. — ^E. P. V. 



118 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the potter's wheel.* It may also be added that many very old 
pines have grown upon the rubbish thrown out of these ancient 
excavations, Mr. Foster counted three hundred and ninety-five 
concentric rings upon the trunk of one of them which was cut 
down. Moreover, the pines now living are surrounded by de- 
cayed trunks, the debris of preceding generations.! 

We therefore see that all the difficulties raised by Klaproth 
fall one after the other, and leave the views of the scholarly 
French Sinologue, de Guignes, without serious objection. The 
country which the Chinese of the fifth century designated by 
the name of Fa-sang can therefore have been nothing else than 
the American Continent, thus discovered by the Asiatics ten 
centuries before Christopher Columbus. 

* Lubbock, "North American Archaeology," French translation given in the 
Revue Archeologique of 1865, p. 182. 

f Lubbock, "Prehistoric Man," French translation. Paris, 1867, 8vo, p. 206. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

d'eICHTHAl's " STUDY." 

The Buddhistic origin of American civilization— The geographical relations between 
Northeastern Asia and Northwestern America— The memoirs of de Guignes 
and Klaproth — If Fu-sang was in Japan, there is no room for the " Coun- 
try of Women "—The Japanese deny that Fu-sang was in their country— 
De Guignes's map— The ease of a voyage from Asia to America— The warm 
current of the Pacific Ocean— The Aleutian Islands— Voyages of the natives 
Xhe civilization of New Mexico — A white population— Cophene— Bud- 
dhism— How it is modified and propagated— Its absorption of the doctrines of 
other religions— Its proselytism— Its religious communities— The route from 
Cophene to Fu-sang— k Buddhist sanctuary at Palenque— Description of 
Stephens— An image of Buddha— The lion-headed couch— The winged globe 
—The aureola about the figure— Decadence in art— The altars upon which 
flowers and fruits are offered— Reply to observations of M. Vivien de Saint 
Martin— The two routes to Ta-han—Th&t country located near the mouth 
of the Amoor River- Traces of Buddhism in that neighbourhood— Ease of 
voyage to the Aleutian islands— Klaproth' s theory untenable— No other hy- 
pothesis remaining than that Fu-sang must be sought in America. 

Study concerning the Buddhistic Origin of American Civili- 
zation — hy M. Gustave d^JEichthal. 



' 1277 



CONDENSED TRANSLATION. 



Article I. — The Geographical Relations between Kortheast- 
ern Asia and Northwestern America. (From the " Revue Arch6- 
ologique," of September 1, 1864.) 

The memoir of de Guignes, " Upon the Voyages of the Chi- 
nese to the Coast of America and as to some Tribes situated 
at the Eastern Extremity of Asia," does not in its title fully ex- 
press the thought which he entertained. The true problem 
which he intended to examine was that of the existence of a 
connection between the civilization of America and that of East- 
ern Asia ; and some, at least, of the most important elements for 
its solution were in his hands. Upon the one side, the discover- 



120 AN INGLORIOIJS COLUMBUS. 

ies of Behring in 1728 and 1741 bad confirmed the old Japanese 
documents, and made known, at least in a general manner, the 
geographical relations between the northern portions of Asia and 
America ; upon the other side, the studies of de Guignes for his 
history of the Mongols had made him acquainted with the an- 
cient Chinese histories, and in one of them he found the accoun* 
upon which all his work is based. 

Klaproth, in an equally celebrated memoir, has, as is well 
known, sought to overthrow de Guignes's conclusion, and has 
endeavoured to substitute another hypothesis. The publication 
of this last memoir has had a deplorable result. By the weight 
attached to his name the author has shaken, in the minds of 
others, the solution indicated by de Guignes, and has turned them 
aside from the truth; yet, nevertheless, viewed as an attempted 
refutation, Klaproth's memoir may be said to be a valueless 
work, and we shall presently show the incredible weakness of 
the arguments which he opposes to those of his predecessor. 
He produces no new documents, and does no more than to re- 
peat those already quoted by de Guignes, and in fact the only 
merit that can be recognized in his work is that he often trans- 
lates them more accurately, and with the superiority given him 
by the general progress in his times in the science of geography 
and in acquaintance with the Chinese. 

Klaproth, in the most arbitrary manner, places himself in op- 
position to the letter of his text by assuming that the statement 
that Fii-sang is situated to the east of Ta-han is erroneous, and 
placing it to the south instead ; but this is not the only objec- 
tion to his argument, for no one in Japan has ever been heard 
to speak of it as Fu-sang; the details which are given by the 
Chinese narrator regarding this country do not agree with Japan 
in any respect, and among other circumstances there is one that is 
mentioned which is quite decisive. The narrator not only places 
Fu-sang twenty thousand li to the east of Ta-han, but he speaks 
of a country, " the Kingdom of "Women," which is found one 
thousand li to the east of Fu-sang. Now, one thousand li to the 
east of Japan there is nothing but the sea. 

It should also be remembered that the Chinese, living so near 
to Japan, and having communications with that country from 
the most ancient times, have never dreamed of placing the coun- 
try of Fu-sang there. To them Fu-sang has become merely a 



D'EICHTHAL'S "STUDY." 121 

legendary country, of which fables are told that would never be 
believed as to a neighbouring land, for the prestige of distance 
and of novel circumstances is necessary to give rise to tales of 
such a nature. 

History is no more favourable than fable to Klaproth's opin- 
ion, for, as he himself admits, Buddhism was introduced into the 
country of Fu-sang in the year 458 a, d., and was not introduced 
into Japan, officially at least, until 552, about a century later. 
How, then, can it be admitted that Fu-sang can be Japan, or 
even any part of Japan ? . . . 

With a species of divinatory instinct, or rather with extreme 
good sense, de Guignes traced upon the map drawn by him the 
probable route to America followed by those whom he calls 
Chinese navigators ; the details are undoubtedly very imperfect ; 
only one of the Aleutian Islands, the first Behring's Island, is 
shown, and upon the other hand the peninsula of Alaska is im- 
moderately extended both in length and breadth ; there is also a 
complete absence of exact determination of latitudes and longi- 
tudes ; nevertheless, the general outline of the coasts of Asia and 
America is perfectly correct. All the discoveries and observa- 
tions since made have only served to confirm it. 

We have three very important documents before us, i. e. : 
" Statistische und ethnographische Nachrichten iiber die Russi- 
schen Besitzungen an der Nordwest-Kiiste von America," by 
Rear- Admiral von Wrangell, St. Petersburg, 1839 ; an analysis 
by F. Loewe, of the work of P^re Wenjaminow, upon " The 
(Aleutian) Islands of the District of Unalaska," extracted from 
the eighth number for 1842 of the periodical, entitled "Archiv 
fur die wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland"; and, finally, the 
analysis in the " Revue des Deux Mondes," for April 1, 1858, of 
the memoir of Maury regarding the ease of the passage between 
the northeastern shores of Asia and the northwestern coast of 
America. All these documents agree in demonstrating the ease 
of this communication, and of establishing a settlement upon the 
northwestern coast of America. The climate of all this region, 
even in the highest latitudes, and up to the sixtieth degree, is 
relatively very mild. The chain composed of the Aleutian 
Islands and the peninsula of Alaska forms, as it were, a barrier 
to arrest the polar influences. Moreover, the great warm current 
of the Pacific Ocean, observed by modern navigators, raises the 



122 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

temperature there very notably. From observations carefully 
collected, it has been proved that the mean temperature of Sitka 
is about 45° Fahrenheit, with, it is true, but very slight differ- 
ence between the summer and the winter ; even in winter the 
sea is never solidly frozen, and, in a word, according to the 
unanimous testimony of navigators, there is no other place in the 
world where so great and sudden a change of climate is found 
as is met in passing from Behring's Sea to the Pacific Ocean. 

The Aleutian Islands, before their conquest by the Russians 
(1760-1790), were inhabited by a numerous and prosperous pop- 
ulation. Amphibious and fur-bearing animals existed there in 
immense numbers. The inhabitants had a tradition that they 
were of Asiatic origin, and they transported themselves easily 
from one island to another in their leather canoes, or haidares. 

" The farther one goes north," says Maury, " the easier the 
passage becomes, and the greater attraction the natives seem to 
find in it. A pole serves them as a rudder ; a branch of a tree 
provided with its limbs and foliage is set up in the air to serve 
as a sail. The crew, which is usually composed of a man with 
his wife and children, take the opportunity when the wind blows 
gently toward the point which they wish to reach, and they may 
be seen fearlessly sailing before the wind in the open sea at a 
speed of four or five miles an hour." Langsdorff, in his " Voy- 
age around the World in the Years 1803-1807," speaks of canoes 
made by the natives, which would hold as many as a dozen per- 
sons, and mentions the fact that they sailed in them from the 
Island of Kodiak to Sitka. 

All this, it is true, is proof only of navigation by the indi- 
genes either between Asia and America, or from one point to 
another of the northwestern coast of America. We see nothing 
of any question of navigation in these regions by the Chinese, 
or even of a direct navigation by the Japanese between the two 
Continents ; and although there are numerous instances, some of 
them quite recent, in which Japanese junks have been driven by 
tempests, or the ocean currents, upon the American coast, the 
return is much more difficult, and there does not exist any trace 
of a regular navigation between China or Japan and America in 
ancient times. In this respect the title given by de Guignes to 
his memoir, " Upon the Voyages of the Chinese to the Coast of 
America," shows that the author wished to give a prudent vague- 



D'EIOHTHAL'S "STUDY." 123 

ness to the title, but said perhaps too much. All the facts go to 
show that the relations with America, of which de Guignes caught 
a glimpse, can and must have existed ; but in the present state of 
our knowledge * we must hold that they took place by means of 
more modest navigators, who still had sufficient skill for so easy 
a passage. . . . 

The brief and judicious observations made by de Guignes, 
regarding the state of civilization attained by the natives of the 
region now known as New Mexico, have been fully confirmed 
by the more perfect knowledge derived from old and new docu- 
ments regarding the region, and we now have unquestionable 
proof of its high state of civilization, and, in some respects, of 
its connection with the Chinese civilization before the conquest. 
All historical documents, moreover, authorize us to place in this 
country the point at which originated the civilization of the 
American tribes found farther south. . . . 

What is said regarding the existence of a white population 
is confirmed by the observations of modern explorers,f and 
finally what is said regarding the existence of two prisons in 
the country may find its explanation in the belief as to future 
punishments held by some Indian tribes, especially by the Man- 
dans. J ... 

When de Guignes translated from the Chinese records the 
statement that the religion of Fo was formerly unknown in the 
land of Fu-sang, but that under the Sung dynasty five bonzes 
from Samarcand carried their doctrine into this country and 
changed the manners of the inhabitants, neither he nor any man 
of that day suspected, either that the religion of Fo was any- 
thing more than the national religion of China, or that it was 
identical with Buddhism, and the question does not seem to have 
occurred to de Guignes as to how these so-called Chinese priests 
can have come from Samarcand. 

The country of JCi-pin, the ancient Cophene, corresponded 
very closely with the country now called Bokhara, the land of 
Samarcand. Samarcand, in fact, at the time spoken of, was one 

* The species of suzerainty exercised by China over Kamtchatka is the only 
proof given by de Guignes of the action of China in its neighbourhood. 

f "Report on the Indian Tribes," by Lieutenant Whipple, p. 31 ; Catlin, 
" Letters and Notes," etc., vol. i, p. 93. 

X Catlin, "Letters and Notes," etc., vol. i, p. 157. 



124 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of the great foci of Buddhism. Moreover, it is in the center of 
Asia, in contact with Persia upon one side and Turkestan upon 
the other, at the outlet of all the routes which lead from this 
central region to the northern frontier of China, and to all the 
northwestern part of Asia as far as to the coast of the Pacific 
Ocean. . . . 

At the time of Klaproth, the history of Buddhism, although 
something was known of it, was far from complete. The great 
works of Hodgson, of Turnour, and of Burnouf had not then 
appeared. That of which de Guignes could not even have 
thought, and which Klaproth himself could have accomplished 
but very imperfectly, it is now possible to attempt with a hope 
of success. By recapitulating all that we know now regard- 
ing the internal development and the distant propagation of 
Buddhism, it will be easy to understand what may have been 
the results of its propagation in America, and from this point of 
view to judge the institutions and the monuments of American 
civilization. 

Article II, — Buddhism : How it is Modified and Propagated. 
(November 1, 1864.) 

This article shows that the spirit of good-will and charity 
which animated the doctrines of the Buddhist religion dis- 
posed it to conciliation toward the foreign religions that sur- 
rounded it, when carried from India, the land of its birth, into 
other countries, even when these other religions had but slight 
affinity with it. 

It never placed itself in open hostility to the world by which 
it was surrounded, and in India respected the pantheon of the 
gods that were worshijDed there. Hostile as the spirit which 
dictated the distinction of castes in India is to the ardent charity 
which animated Buddhism, it accepted the distinction of castes 
as an accomplished fact. 

The fusion of Buddhism with the national religion, even with 
that of the sects of India the most opposed to its nature, is a fact 
established by the most authentic documents and by unquestion- 
able proofs. In principles, nothing can be more opposite to 
Buddhism than the worship of Siva ; yet, notwithstanding this, 
at the end of a few centuries we see an intimate union estab- 
lished between the two religions. 

In Java, Buddhism is found mixed with Brahmanism, or with 



D'EIOHTHAL'S "STUDY." 125 

the worship of Siva, and the union of Buddhism with Brahman- 
ism is also found in Ceylon ; and the Buddhistic religion of Ja- 
pan shows a large mixture of other elements. 

This series of facts shows what transformations Buddhism 
underwent, even in very early times, by contact with the other 
relio-ions which it encountered. It also shows us the expansive 
force by which it was animated, and which served to transport 
it to a great distance from the place at which it originated. 
Proselytism is an essential feature of Buddhism ; it is the con- 
sequence of the sentiments of good-will and universal charity 
which it professed, and at the same time of the profound faith 
which the word of the master inspired in his disciples. " If the 
great saint Buddha formerly descended upon the earth," says 
Hiuen-tscoig, " it was that he might himself spread abroad the 
blessed influences of his law— Buddha established his doctrine in 
order that it might be spread abroad into all places. What man 
is there who would wish to be the only one to drink of it ? I 
can not forget the words of the sacred book, * Whosoever has 
hidden the law from men shall be struck with blindness in all 
his transmigrations.' " 

" The man who believes in the mission of Sakya-muni," says 
M. Neumann, " is obliged to consider every man as an equal and 
a brother, and must even strive to have the blessed news of re- 
demption carried to all the nations of the earth, and for this 
purpose he should, following the example of the divine-man, 
submit himself to all trials and all sufferings. This is why we 
see a multitude of Buddhist monks and missionaries going from 
Central Asia, China, Japan, and Corea, and traveling into all 
parts of the world, known and unknown. It is to preach to un- 
believers the doctrine of the three jewels (i. e., Buddha, the Law, 
and the Assembly), or to gather news of their co-religionists." 

Buddhism rejected the mystery in which Brahmanism was en- 
veloped, and, proclaiming the superiority of moral works above 
mere ritualistic practices,* its preachings opened its doctrines to 
the acceptance of all mankind. Its disciples, both men and 
women, after having in the earliest days shared a nomadic life, 
were united in religious communities and convents, which were 
governed by the eldest or the most honoured. f It recommended 

* Bumouf 3 "Introduction ^ I'Histoire du Buddhisme," pp. 335 and 337. 
f Bumouf, p. 214. 



126 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

penance as the means of progressive improvement ; it instituted 
the confession ; * it prohibited bloody sacrifices.! 

We can now understand both the truth and importance of 
the statements made in the Chinese account : that five monks 
went to Fu-sang, and there spread abroad the law of Buddha ; 
that they carried with them their books, their sacred images, and 
their ritual, and instituted monastic customs, and so changed the 
manners of the inhabitants. A Buddhist mission could not be 
better characterized. It should be remembered, however, that 
the books and images carried by these missionaries of the fifth 
century would undoubtedly contain quite as strong an infusion 
of the elements of Brahmanism (and of the worship of Siva in 
particular) as of the elements of Buddhism properly so called. 
China and Japan seem also to have furnished their contingent, 
and we in fact know that if this doctrine was first established in 
Fu-sang by monks from Samarcand, the account which has been 
transmitted to us is the work of a Chinese monk who had so- 
journed there himself. As to the indication of Samarcand, as the 
country from which the mission departed, there is nothing that 
should not seem to us to be perfectly authentic. Since the pub- 
lication of the journey of Hluen-tsang, we know that the Buddh- 
ist propagandist, setting forth from the north of India, passed 
Samarcand in order to reach, by way of Turkestan and the des- 
ert of Gobi, the northern frontiers of China. 

Starting from this point, the Buddhist missionaries would 
have nothing further to do than to turn toward the north, in 
order to follow the route indicated by de Guignes, which, by 
way of the Lake of Baikal and the Amoor River, would lead 
them to the country of Ta-han. The remarkable Buddhist 
monuments recently discovered near the mouth of the Amoor 
River, although their date can not be precisely determined, 
prove in any case that at a very ancient epoch this country was 
frequented by the Buddhists.J 

From Ta-han, as stated in the Chinese account, these mis- 
sionaries reached Fii-sang. 

Article III. — Consideration of the Observations of Hum- 
boldt upon the Relations between the Civilization of Asia and 
America (January 1, 1865), and 

* Burnouf, p. 300. f Burnouf, p. 339. 

X See C. de Sabin, " Le Fleuve Amour," Paris, 1861. 



D'EICHTHAL'S "STUDY." 127 

Article IV. — Upon the Presence of Buddhism among the 
Red-skins (April 1, 1865), it seems unnecessary to translate ; as 
Humboldt's arguments are fully given elsewhere, and as Article 
IV relates mostly to the religious belief and practices of the 
Mandan Indians. 

Article V. — A Buddhist Sanctuary at Palenque (June 1, 
1865). 

John Stephens, in his book, entitled " Incidents of Travel in 
Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan," new edition, London, 
1844, vol. ii, p. 318, makes the following statement : 

" Within the walls of the palace of Palenque, at the east of 
the interior tower, is another building with two corridors, one 
richly decorated with pictures in stucco, and having in the center 
an elliptical tablet. It is four feet long and three wide, of hard 
stone, set in the wall. Around it are the remains of a rich stucco 
border. The principal figure sits cross-legged on a couch orna- 
mented with two leopards' heads ; the attitude is easy, the 
physiognomy the same as that of the other personages, and the 
expression calm and benevolent. The figure wears around its 
neck a necklace of pearls, to which is suspended a small medal- 
lion containing a face ; perhaps intended as an image of the sun. 
Like every other subject of sculpture we had seen in the coun- 
try, the personage has ear-rings, bracelets on the wrists, and a 
girdle round the loins. The head-dress differs from most of the 
others at Palenque in that it wants the plume of feathers." 

Stephens abstains from noting any analogy between this 
image and any other known type ; but M. Lenoir, who, in his 
"Parallel of the Ancient Mexican Monuments with those of the 
Old World," referred to this figure, made the remark that its 
graceful attitude is analogous with the pose which the East 
Indians give to their god Buddha. * We shall be bolder than 
M. Lenoir, and where he only suspected an analogy we shall not 
fear to recognize a true identity. 

In fact, the scene which we find under our eyes is frequently 
found in the monuments of Buddhist worship. It may be ob- 
served, for instance, three times repeated, in the bas-reliefs of 
the temple of Boro-Boudor in Java, which Crawf urd has inserted 
in his work upon the Indian Archipelago. These picture one or 
more worshipers presenting to Buddha, in accordance with the 
* " Antiquites Mexicaines," vol. ii, p, T7. 



128 



AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 




precepts of his religion, offerings of flowers and of fruits. One 

of these images in par- 
ticular, that repro- 
duced in Crawfurd's 
plate xxii,* and copied 
in .the accompanying 
cut. Fig. 1, offers a 
striking resemblance 
to our image of Pa- 
lenque, which is copied 
in Fig. 2. In each 
we see a worshiper 
offering to the divin- 
ity, before whom he 
is kneeling, a flower, 
which, in the case of 
the Buddhist, is in- 
contestably a lotus- 
flower, and, in the case 
of the American wor- 
shiper, either the same 
flower or some other 
of similar appearance 
— possibly, as has been 
suggested by M. the 
Abbe Brasseur de 
Bourbourg, a cacao- 
tree flower. Here, 
however, the flower is 
not found, as in the 
bas - relief of Boro- 
Boudor, in the hand 
of the worshiper, but 
it rests upon a sort of 
support which the 

* Crawfurd's " History of 

the Indian Archipelago," 3 

vols, in 12mo. Edinburgh, 

1820; vol. ii, plates xix, 

Fig. 2. — Bas-relief found at Palenquc. xxii, and xxiii. 



Fig, 1. — Worshiper offering a flower to the image 
of Buddha. 




D'EICHTHAL'S "STUDY.' 



129 



worshiper presents to the divinity ; but this same disposition, or 
one that is analogous, may be seen in Crawfurd's plate xix. 
Moreover, this same flower is twice found upon the head of our 
divinity, and is also frequently found associated with the figures 
of the gods of Palenque. (See, among the rest, Stephens's " Cen- 
tral America," vol. ii, p. 316, plate No. 2.) The two lions, or 
leopards, facing in opposite directions, upon which our divinity 
is seated, recall the lions which, in the paintings of India, some- 
times support the seat of Buddha (and even sometimes of other 
divinities), and of which an example is given in the image of 
Buddha reproduced in Fig. 1. 

But they also recall the figures of animals in pairs, facing in 
opposite directions, which are found so often in the sculptures 
and paintings of Asia. Such are notably the celebrated capi- 
tals of the columns of Persepolis, and of the temple of D^los, 
formed of two horses ; and the group of the lion and the bull 
placed back to back, attributed to Ardahnari ; finally, they 
agree in every particular with the group of two crouching lions 
—which, although brought from the island of Cyprus, are of 
Assyrian type— which may be seen in the Museum of Napoleon 
III, and of which an engraving is here given (Fig. 3). 

Nevertheless, the resemblance of this last group with that 
which serves as a seat for our Buddha is much less than that 
which it presents to two other groups of lions or leopards, placed 
back to back, one found at the base of a niche of the edifice 
called the " House of the Nuns," at Uxmal,* the other discovered, 
or more properly disinterred, by Stephens in the same city. A 





Fig. 3.— Sculpture from the island of Fm. 4.— Sculpture found at Uxmal, Yu- 

Cyprus. catan. 



* Catherwood, " Views of Ancient Monuments of Central America, Chiapas 
■and Yucatan," plate xv. 
9 



130 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

picture of the latter is given in the "Incidents of Travel in 
Yucatan," vol. i, p. 183, and we reproduce it in Fig. 4, p. 129, 
in order that the reader may be able to appreciate its resemblance 
to the Cyprian group. 

Upon the plinth of the Cyprian group there is seen the image 
of the loinged glohe, so frequently represented upon the pedi- 
ments and friezes of the temples of Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. 
This emblem does not occur in the last-mentioned American 
group, but an ornament, either identical or at least v6ry similar, 
may be seen above a door opening into the interior of a sanct- 
uary at Ocosingo, a city not very far distant from Palenque. 

" In the back wall of the central chamber of this temple," 
says Stephens,* " was a doorway of the same size with that in 

front, which led to an 

r/^^^fy!li^^ ' center was an oblong in- 

"^i^^8p|Sl^^^^^ii!0ft eleven, which was mani- 

FiG. 5.-Ornamen^above^a door of a ruin at ^^^^ important part of 

the edifice. The door 
was choked up with ruins to within a few feet of the top, but 
over it, and extending along the whole front of the structure, 
was a large stucco ornament, which at first impressed us most 
forcibly by its striking resemblance to the winged globe over 
the doors of Egyptian temples. Part of this ornament had 
fallen down, and, striking the heap of rubbish underneath, 
had rolled beyond the door of entrance. We endeavoured 
to roll it back and restore it to its place, but it proved too heavy 
for the strength of four men and a boy. The part which 
remains is represented in the engraving, and differs in details 
from the winged globe. The wings are reversed ; there is a 
fragment of a circular ornament, which may have been intended 
for a globe, but there are no remains of serpents entwining it." 

Even at Palenque, above the door and upon the frieze of the 
sanctuary of the edifice described by Stephens under the name 
of " Casa No. 3," we see the two extremities of a similar orna- 
ment, the central part having been destroyed. Stephens has re- 
* Stephens's " Central America," vol. ii, p. 259. 



D'EICHTHAL'S "STUDY." 131 

produced this ornament, or at least the two extremities which 
still remain of it, without making it the object of any observa- 
tion in his text.* 

At our first step into the study of the antiquities of Central 
America, we, therefore, find again the same singularity which 
struck us in the traditions relative to the Deluge. We see our- 
selves carried in one direction to Western Asia and the banks of 
the Mediterranean, and in the other to India and Eastern Asia. 
Between the two lies the land of Chaldea, and it is from this 
intermediate point that traditions and rites, as well as civiliza- 
tion, have radiated. 

" It is in Chaldea," says M. Alfred Maury,f " that civilization 
arose for the first time upon our globe, or at least this country 
was one of the first centers from which it was spread abroad into 
neighbouring lands. It is therefore easy to conceive that a legend 
existing in Chaldea may have been earned among the nations 
who from all quarters resorted to this country." 

Bearing in mind, again, that we have every reason to believe 
Samarcand to have been the point of departure of the Buddhism 
propagated in America, this circumstance makes it more easy to 
conceive of the presence in the New World of Asiatic elements 
borrowed even by Western Asia. 

But the course of our work has brought us again into the 
presence of very serious and difficult questions. We shall there- 
fore content ourselves with the presentation of the facts which 
we have given, and conclude this article with a return to the 
examination of the figure of Buddha at Palenque. 

The oval in which the figure is inscribed, although it is true 
it is a little larger, recalls that which envelopes the bust of 
our Boro-Boudor (see Fig. 1, upon page 128), an oval which 
in itself is nothing more than the aureola which at first sur- 
rounded only the head of Buddha, but which was gradually 
enlarged. 

But there is another point of resemblance which, although it 
relates to a simple detail only, is still more striking and decisive. 
Stephens relates, as we have remarked, that the oval was origi- 
nally surrounded by a border in stucco, of which he saw only 
the remains, and which he did not indicate in his design ; but 

* Stephens's " Central America," vol. ii, p. 354. 
f " Encyclopedie Moderne," t. xii, p. 71. 



132 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

in the design of Castaneda * this border is clearly shown, although 
even then very dilapidated. It is after this model that, in our 
copy of the design of Stephens, we have attempted to restore the 
border in question, in part at least, and at the same time we 
have restored a series of small ornaments, also given by Cas- 
taneda, of which the form is somewhat crescent-shaped. These 
ornaments have given rise to the most singular interpretations ; 
but the same ornaments, similarly disposed, are found about the 
aureola of the figure of an East Indian divinity which Raffles 
has given in his " History of Java " (vol. ii), and which is re- 
produced below. 

Moreover, if the origin and signification of this ornament is 
sought, it will be found, from a study of the other figures given 
by Raffles, that it grew from successive 
transformations of the flames originally 
drawn about the aureola of the divinities, 
and of which an example is found in our 
figure itself. 

Such analogies as these, we believe, 
can not be the effect of chance. 

In order to explain them, it must be 

admitted that the Buddhist artists who 

came to America brought with them the 

Fio. 6 -Aureola about the g^^^ collection of plans and designs, the 

head of an East Indian .,. t ? i • i 

^^qI same albums, if I may use the word, which 

were found in the hands of the Buddhist 
missionaries in the south of India and in the Indian Archipelago. 
It is a supposition which is confirmed by all the analogies that 
we know to exist between American and Asiatic art, and more- 
over it is a very natural supposition, fully justified by the his- 
tory of Buddhist propagandism, and without which the existence 
of so marked a connection between American and Asiatic art 
appears an insoluble problem. 

It should, however, be borne in mind that, between the primi- 
tive types imported by the Buddhists and the different monuments 
which we are examining, we; should expect to find all the differences 
produced' by an inevitable decadence in art, as well as by the influ- 
ence of local causes and the aspect of novel natural surroundings. 

* " Antiquit^s Mexicaines," vol. ii, plate xxvi ; and Kingsborough's " Antiqui- 
ties of Mexico," vol. iv, part third, plate xx. 




D'EICHTHAL'S "STUDY." 



133 



Below and in front of our bas-relief there was also found a 
species of table, or bracket-shelf, which Castaiieda gives in his 
design, but of which Stephens saw no more than the mark upon 
the wall of the place where it had stood, which he reproduces 
with dotted lines " after the model of similar tables existing in 
other places." * 

" Del Rio," says Mr. Squier, in his " Researches regarding 
the Serpent Symbol in America," " describes this table as a large 
flag-stone, six feet in length,f three feet four inches wide, and 
seven inches thick, placed upon four legs like a table. These 
legs were ornamented by figures in bas-relief. Along the tab- 
let against the wall there reached a sort of border similarly 
sculptured. 

Kow, this is precisely the character of the JBalang-ko of the 
Hindoos, or the Then-halang of the Siamese — stones or altars of 




Q 111 t^ 111 © |ly////| 




Fig. 7. — Table or altar found at Palenque, 



Buddha, upon which fruits and flowers were offered instead of 
bloody sacrifices. These are found in the Siamese and Japanese 
temples, as well as in all Buddhist temples generally.^ 

* "Central America," vol. ii, p. 318. " Antiquit^s Mexicaines," vol. ii, plate 
xxvi, Fig. 33. 

f This length is in fact that which is indicated in the report of Del Rio (see 
*'Memoires de la Societe Geographique de Paris," vol. ii, p. lYO) and in the Ger- 
man translation given by Minutoli, " Besehreibung einer alten Stadt," etc., Berlin, 
1832. Nevertheless, this measure does not agree with that given by Stephens, and 
by Del Rio himself, in the place cited for the length of the bas-relief — a measure 
which, according to the engraving, should be equal to that of the tablet. 

X Squier, " The Serpent Symbol and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles 
of Nature in America," New York, 1851, p. 89. Squier himself refers to an arti- 
cle by Captain James Low, " On Buddha and the Phrabat — Explanation of the. 



134 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



Quite recently an English journal, the " London Illustrated 
News " (February 25, 1865, p. 193), has given, with an image of 
Buddha, a specimen of a Buddhist altar, perfectly conformable 
to the Mexican altar, of which an illustration is given in Fig. 7. 
The presence of this altar, added to all the resemblances of detail 
which we have pointed out in the bas-relief, seems to us to clear- 
ly prove the Buddhistic character of the Sanctuary of Paleuque. 
The figure which we have described is, to our knowledge, the 
only one of the kind which exists at Palenque. Outside of this 
city, and in all the other ruins of Central America, we do not 
know of any other figure at all similar, unless it is a figure 
which M. Waldeck has given in his " Voyage to Yucatan," and 
which he says he saw repeated four times in that number of 
niches of the southern fayade of the " House of the Nuns " at 
XJxmal. 

It is noticeable that this artist, who thought that he found 
the imprint of Buddhism at Uxmal in a 
number of details, perhaps indifferent, 
seems not to have remarked the resem- 
blance of this figure drawn by him to the 
reformer of India. He contents himself 
with the statement that " upon the sill of 
the niche which surmounts each door 
there is placed a small seated figure." 
On this occasion at least M. Waldeck 
can not therefore be accused of taking 
sides. Moreover, the southern fayade of 
the " House of the Nuns," of which he speaks, has been drawn 
again by Stephens in a general view of the site, and has since 
been drawn by Catherwood.* The niches indicated above each 

S3mibols on a Prapatha or Impression of the Divine Foot," in the " Transac- 
tions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland," vol. iii, p. 77. 
I have verified the citation, and it is entirely correct. I fear, however, that there 
may have been an error in the transcription of the Indian name given as Balanff- 
ko or TJien-halang. The word is unknown to all the Indian scholars whom I have 
been able to consult. May there not have been a confusion with the stone Biri' 
lang of the worshipers of Siva ? (See Coleman's " Slythology of the Hindus," p. 
176.) I have not succeeded, however, in discovering the true name of these 
altars. The authors who describe them merely mention them without stating the 
name by which they are called. 

* Stephens, " Yucatan," vol. i, p. 305. Catherwood, " Views of Ancient Monu- 




Fio. 8. — Seated figure 
found in niches of 
a building at Uxmal. 



D'EICHTHAL'S " STUDY." 



135 



door are perfectly distinguishable, although, by reason of the 
distance from which the view is supposed to be taken, it is im- 
possible to distinguish whether any object is or is not contained 
in them.* 

Admitting as authentic, therefore, the image given by M. 
Waldeck (and there is every reason for so doing), it is impossible 
to fail to be struck by the analogy which it presents with the 
representations of Buddha in general, but particularly with the 
figure of Buddha sitting cross-legged, which is found placed and 
repeated in an entirely similar manner in the four hundred niches 
of the temple of Boro-Boudor at Java.f The characteristic posi- 
tion of the right arm is the same in both cases. The head-dress 
is different, but we find an almost exactly similar head-dress 
upon other figures of Buddha, or 
upon the heads of other divinities. 
It is a sort of fan which adorns 
the head of the divine person- 
age, and which is formed by a ser- 
pent with several heads. J It is an 
ordinary attribute of Vishnu.* It 
is also found upon the head of 
Hanouman, | upon that of Gane- 
sa, ^ of Vira-Badhra, () etc., and 
finally upon that of Buddha him- 
self. J A Buddha with this head- 
dress somewhat modified is sculpt- 
ured upon the wall of the temple of Indra-Saba at Ellora ; it has 




Fia. 9. — Figure of Buddha — from 
a temple at Ellora. 



ments in Central America," plate viii. It is true that there are not merely four 
of these niches visible upon the southern fa9ade, as stated in the account, but 
eight. At the same time, however, it is also true that the fa9ade is divided into 
two compartments, each containing four niches, and this fact may possibly explain 
Waldeck's error. 

* The part of this fa9ade photographed by M. de Charney contains only two 
of the eight niches, and, even with the magnifying-glass, it is impossible to distin- 
guish any appearance of a statue in either of them. But the form of the niche 
is exactly as given by Waldeck, and it is possible that the statues have been de- 
stroyed since the visit of that traveler. 

f Crawf urd's " History of the Indian Archipelago," vol. ii, plate xxix. 
X Moor's " Hindu Pantheon," plate xxiv. 

* Ibid., plate viii. | Ibid., plate xcii. 
^ Ibid., Frontispiece. (j Ibid., plate xxvi. if Ibid., plate Ixxv, 



136 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

been reproduced by Daniel,* and we give it in our Fig. 9 (page 
135), that it may be compared with the figure at Uxmal.f 

The existence of these niches, with their uniform statues, 
often found in very great numbers in the walls of the terraces 
which support the temjjles, is one of the common traits of the 
religious architecture of the Indian Archipelago and of Central 
America. We content ourselves here with merely pointing out 
this analogy. We shall return to the subject again when, after 
our review of American history, we return to the examination 
of the antiquities of Palenque.J 

GUSTAVE d'EiCHTHAL. 

Supplement to the First Article. Reply to some Observations of 
M. Vivien de Saint-Martin upon de Gxdgnes''s Memoir. 

The first question which presents itself to us, in connection 
with this work, is that of the geographical connections and the 
ancient communications between Asia and America, which could 
have permitted the passage of Buddhist missionaries to the New 
World. We have said that it seems to us to be possible to reduce 
this question to the analysis and development of de Guignes's 
memoir upon the subject. In our first article we therefore took 
up the examination of this memoir, and concluded by adopting 

* " Oriental Scenery." Description of Ellora. 

•f- Even the modification which is presented by the head-dress of the statue 
at Uxmal seems to be an indication of its authenticity. 

\ Before terminating this article, we think it necessary to again call the atten- 
tion of our readers to another bas-relief which decorates the house designated by 
Stephens as Casa No. 4- It is an unknown divinity, but one which has complete- 
ly the appearance and attitude of an East Indian divinity. M. Lenoir, in his 
" Parallel of the Ancient Mexican Monuments with those of the Old World," was 
the first to make the remark. " This bas-relief," says he, " represents a divinity 
who offers, especially in his attitude, a great resemblance to the divinities of 
India or Japan" ("Antiquites Mexicaines," vol. ii, p. 78); the figure itself is 
found in the same volume, plate xxxiii, and also in the "Antiquities of Mexico " 
of Lord Kingsborough, vol. iv, third part ; also in the " Memoircs de la Societe 
de Geographic," vol. ii, plate xvi. Unfortunately this bas-relief was, by 1840, 
almost destroyed. Stephens saw only a fragment (" Central America," vol. ii, p. 
355). Compare this bas-relief with the figure of Parvati, given by Moor, "Hindu 
Pantheon," plate v, figure 5 ; and with a statuette of Lakchmi which is to be seen 
in the Imperial Library. A bas-relief discovered by Stephens at Chichen-Itza, in 
Yucatan, is the only one among the American figures with which we are acquainted 
that shows a similar attitude. (" Incidents of Travel in Yucatan," vol. ii, p. 292.) 



D'EICHTHAL'S "STUDY." 137 

the opinion expressed by de Guignes, that the Fii-sang of the 
Chinese tradition can be nothing else than a portion of America. 

An eminent geographer, M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, has com- 
bated this conclusion in a chapter of his " Annee Geographique " 
(1865), entitled "TJne Vieille Histoire remise h Flot " (i. e., An 
Old Story Set Afloat). 

There is always profit to be found in a work emanating from 
M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, and we ourselves have found it in 
this article ; but we persist none the less in the opinion which 
we have expressed : we even think that the observations of M. 
Vivien de Saint-Martin have only added a new force to our con- 
viction. The memoir of de Guignes is composed of two quite 
distinct parts : one is the account of the country of Fu-sang, 
written in the fifth century of our era by a Buddhist missionary 
named Hoei Shin, which de Guignes extracted from the history 
of Li-yan-cheu ; the other part is a commentary intended to 
determine the geographical position of the country of Fu-sang. 
In the first part, de Guignes is merely a translator ; in the sec- 
ond, he appears as a critic, and a critic of the first order. 

His merit, as we formerly remarked (and upon this point 
M. Vivien is in accord with us), is that, enabled by his vast 
knowledge of Chinese literature, he discovered two itineraries — 
one maritime, the other terrestrial ; both of which terminate at 
the country of Ta-han, the point of Asia which, according to the 
account, is nearest to the country of Fu-sang. 

The meeting of the two routes at their northern extremity 
proves that the country of Ta-han is necessarily situated at some 
point upon the northeastern coast of Asia. De Guignes thinks 
that this point is in Kamtchatka. M. Vivien de Saint-Martin 
thinks that it should be sought upon the river Amoor, near the 
point at which it empties into the Sea of Ochotsk, in the region 
in which, as we have already said, Buddhist monuments in a 
state of excellent preservation have been recently discovered. 
We were instantly struck by the same thought as M. Vivien de 
Saint-Martin, and, after a new examination of the question, we 
declare that we are convinced of the correctness of this view. 

In fact, even according to the description of the route trans- 
lated by de Guignes, we see that by traveling Jive days to the 
east, in the direction of the Amoor River, the Shy-icei Ju-che 
are reached ; from there, after traveling five days to the north. 



138 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the country of Ta-han is reached, surrounded on three sides 
by the sea. Now, below its junction with the Soungari-Oula, 
and especially below its junction with the Oussori, the Amoor 
turns directly to the north, and the country of Ta-han may 
probably be located near its mouth. The circumstance that it 
is surrounded on three sides by the sea, may be accounted for 
by .supposing that it is situated in some bend described by the 
river. But de Guignes, who was but imperfectly acquainted 
with the course of the Amoor and with the geography of this 
region, has thought it necessary to go as far north as Kam- 
tchatka to find a locality which corresponds with the descrip- 
tion of his itinerary. 

We, therefore, very willingly make this concession to M. 
Vivien de Saint-Martin, or, rather, we thank him for the recti- 
fication which he has led us to adopt. But this fact does not 
prove that de Guignes's memoir should be considered any the 
less worthy of interest, or that the solution of the question 
which he proposes is any the less probable. But let M. Vivien 
speak for himself : 

" The few germs of rudimentary civilization, of which the 
trace is found among the tribes of the Amoor, are of Buddhist 
origin : they undoubtedly appertain to several different epochs, 
but the oldest are connected with the missions of the sixth cent- 
ury and the three following centuries, which are mentioned in the 
texts which de Guignes was the first to describe. This is a real 
service, among many others, which the scholarly author of the 
'History of the Huns' has rendered to science, and of which 
his error as to the location of Ta-han does not at all diminish 
the merit." * 

After calling attention to the Buddhist monuments discov- 
ered some ten years ago upon the lower bank of the Amoor 
River, near the village designated as *' Ghiliak of the Tower," 
M. Vivien continues thus : 

" We, therefore, now have positive proof that the mission- 
aries of the religion of Buddha, or of Fo, as it is called by the 
Chinese, not only carried shamanism into all of Central Asia, 
but pressed to the east and descended the valley of the Amoor 
River as far as to the shores of the Eastern Sea, at the same time 
that other propagators of this pre-eminently proselyting religion 

* " L'Ann^e Geographique," Paris, 1865, p. 268. 



D'EICHTHAL'S " STUDY." 139 

spread themselves by the maritime route into all the islands 
contained within the boundaries of the sea inclosed between the 
Japanese Archipelago and the coast of Mantchooria, designated 
upon our maps as the Sea of Japan." * 

Having traveled this distance, would the Buddhist mission- 
aries arrest their voyage here, or would they not rather, profiting 
by the ease with which the chain of the Aleutian Islands would 
enable them to pass from one continent to the other, press on 
until they had penetrated to America ? A tradition, mentioned 
by de Guignes, states that at an early epoch " the Tartars who 
lived in the neighbourhood of the Amoor River were accustomed 
from this point to reach the southern portion of Kamtchatka, 
after five days' navigation toward the north." 

This is the most direct route to reach the Aleutian Islands. 
They could also reach them almost equally well by turning the 
point of the island of Saghalien, or Taraikai, upon the south, and 
coasting along the chain of the Kurile Islands. It is true that 
we have no historical proof of navigation across what may be 
called the Aleutian Sea, either by the Tartars or by the Bud- 
dhist missionaries. But the ease of this navigation is an incon- 
testable fact, and here, moreover, the tradition of Fu-sang is 
found. 

This tradition is not founded merely upon the unsustained 
statement of an obscure missionary ; it is attested by a multi- 
tude of legendary beliefs, of which Klaproth himself has made 
known to us the principal monuments. From that time the 
question has been, " Where is this land of Fu-sang situated ? " 
De Guignes founded his answer to this question upon the dis- 
tance of twenty thousand li, at which distance to the east from 
Ta-Jian, Hoel Shin stated that this country was situated, and 
thus arrived at the conclusion that Fi-sang must be found at 
some point upon the American coast, probably in California. 
As for us, we believe (and M. Vivien is of the same opinion) 
that the round distance of twenty thousand li is purely emphatic, 
and merely indicates that the distance is very great. But even 
this interpretation does not at all weaken de Guignes's conclu- 
sion : " The Chinese," says this illustrious scholar, " have pene- 
trated into countries very distant toward the east. I have ex- 
amined their measures, and they have conducted me to the coast 
* " L'Annee G6ographique," p. 259. 



140 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of California. I have concluded from this that they have known 
America since the year 458 a, d. In the countries near to those 
where they landed we find the most civilized nations of America. 
I have thought that they were indebted for their civilization to 
the commerce which they have had with the Chinese. This is all 
that I have sought to establish in this memoir." If, at the epoch 
when de Guignes lived, this conclusion offered itself to him as 
a probable hypothesis, how much stronger would he have con- 
sidered the proof if he had known, as we now know, both the 
character of Buddhism, and its diffusion in the countries along 
the coast of the Sea of Japan and near the mouth of the Amoor 
River, and, in addition, the proofs, which we dare call incontest- 
able, of its presence in America. 

It is, nevertheless, against this fortunate divination of an 
illustrious scholar that M. Vivien de Saint-Martin now protests. 
Undoubtedly he has shown that in the account of the shaman 
Hoei iShm several particulars do not agree with America. We 
may, therefore, conclude that Hoei Shin, not having any one 
to check his account, and perhaps never having been himself in 
Fu-sang (for the text is mute, or at least doubtful, as to this 
point), may have, as to some points, consulted his imagination 
rather than his recollection ; but making all concessions on 
this account, there remain two important points in his story as 
to which no doubt can be raised : the essentially Buddhistic 
character of the customs of Fu-sang, and its situation at a 
great distance to the east of the Kingdom of Ta-han and the 
" Middle Kingdom." Now, from these two characters, Fu-sang 
can not be located elsewhere than in America. M. Vivien de 
Saint-Martin is not of this opinion. It is true that he does not 
offer any conclusion that is well-founded ; he merely thinks that 
the " supposition of Klaproth (who sees in Fu-sang a portion of 
Japan) is, as has been said of it, the most probable." But the 
supposition of Klaproth, as we have repeated time after time, 
and as, moreover, M. Vivien himself acknowledges, has insur- 
mountable objections opposed to it : it places to the south of 
Ta-han that which, according to the account, should be found at 
the east, and it supposes the existence of a Buddhist kingdom in 
Japan at an epoch when Buddhism was not known there. It 
remains, therefore, to return to de Guignes's hypothesis, which, 
moreover, is now a hundred times more probable than it seemed 



D'EICHTHAL'S "STUDY." 141 

at the epoch when it was first produced by its illustrious author. 
" Old stories," in spite of the displeasure of M. Vivien de Saint- 
Martin, are good to revive when they are true old stories. 

To the documents which we named in our second article, as 
showing the association which has existed between Buddhism 
and the Brahmanic religions, particularly the worship of Siva, 
there should be added those given by Koeppen, in his history of 
Buddhism in Thibet, " Die Lamaische Hierarchic und Kirche," 
vol. i, page 296 and following. 



CHAPTER IX. 

COINCIDENCES NOTED BY HUMBOLDT, LOBSCHEID, AND PKESCOTT. 

Extracts from the " Views of the Cordilleras " — Similarity of Asiatic and Ameri- 
can civilizations — The struggles of the Brahmans and Buddhists — The divis- 
ions of the great cycles — The Mexicans designated the days of their months 
by the names of the zodiacal signs used in Eastern Asia — Cipactli and 
Capricornus — Table of resemblances — The tiger and monkey found only 
in southern countries — The Aztec migration from the north — Resemblance 
between certain Mexican and Tartarian words — The cutting-stones of the 
Aztecs — The sign oUin and the foot-prints of Yishnu — Effects of a mixture of 
several nations — Changes resulting from changed circumstances and lapse of 
time — Analogies in religious customs — Analogy in the fables regarding the 
destructions of the universe — Lobscheid's reasons for thinking the American 
Indians to be one race with the Japanese and Eastern Asiatics — Similarity 
of customs — Tiles — Anchors — The route from Asia to America — Shipwrecks 
of fishing-boats — Head-dresses — Languages — Religion — Customs — Marriage 
'solemnized by tying the garments together — Extracts from Prescott's " History 
of the Conquest of Mexico " — Analogies in traditions and religious usages — 
Disposal of the bodies of the dead — The analogies of science — The calendar — 
General conclusions. 

Extracts frotn the " Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of 
the Indigenous Nations of America " — hy Alexander von 
Himiboldt. 

1679 j^ jg ^ surprise to find, toward .the end of the fifteenth 
century, in a world that we call " new," the ancient institutions, 
the religious ideas, the forms of edifices which, in Asia, appear 
to belong to the first dawn of civilization. It is true of the 
characteristic traits of the nations, as of the interior structure of 
the vegetation scattered upon the surface of the globe, that 
everywhere they exhibit the imprint of a primitive type, in spite 
of the differences which are produced by the nature of the cli- 
mates and of the soil, and by the combined influences of various 
accidental causes. ... * 



COINCIDENCES NOTED BY HUMBOLDT. I43 

*°^'' If the languages offer Ibut feeble jsroof of ancient commu- 
nication between the two worlds, this communication is indispu- 
tably shown in the cosmogonies, the monuments, the hieroglyphics, 
and the institutions of the nations of America and Asia. . . . 

'^^^ If we reflect ever so little upon the epoch of the earliest 
Toltec migrations, upon the monastic institutions, the symbols of 
worship, the calendar, and the form of the monuments of Cholula, 
Sogamozo, and Cuzco, we perceive that Quetzalcoatl, Bochica, and// 
Manco-Capac did not draw their code of laws from the north of 
Europe. Everything appears to carry us to Eastern Asia, to the 
nations that have been in contact with the Thibetans, the sha- 
manistic Tartars, and the bearded Ainos of the islands of Jesso 
and Saghalien. . . . 

15S8 j^ prolonged struggle between two religious sects, the 
Brahmans and the Buddhists, ended by the emigration of the 
shamans of Thibet into Mongolia, China, and Japan. If any 
of the tribes of the Tartarian race passed by the way of the 
northwestern coast of America, and from there southerly and 
easterly to the banks of the Gila and those of the Missouri, as the 
etymological researches of Vater in his w^ork upon the peopling 
of America appear to indicate, it would be less surprising to find, 
among the semi-barbarous tribes of the new continent, idols and 
architectural monuments, a hieroglyphic writing, an exact knowl- 
edge of the duration of the year and traditions concerning the 
first condition of the world, which all recall the knowledge, the 
arts, and the religious opinions of the Asiatic nations. . . . 

"'^ "We have seen that the Mexicans, the Japanese, the Thibe- 
tans, and several other nations of Central Asia, have followed 
the same system in the division of the great cycles and in the 
names of the years that compose them. It remains for us to 
examine a fact which more directly concerns the history of the * 
migrations of the nations, and which appears to have hitherto 
escaped the attention of scholars. I expect to be able to prove 
that a great part of the names by which the Mexicans designated 
the twenty days of- their months are those of the signs of a 
zodiac used, from the most remote antiquity, by the nations of 
Eastern Asia. To make it evident that this assertion is less 
hazardous than it appears at first sight, I will give in a single 
table — first, the names of the Mexican hieroglyphs as they have- 
been transmitted to us by all the authors of the sixteenth cent- 



144 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



ury ; second, the names of the twelve signs of the zodiac among 
the Tartars, Thibetans, and Japanese ; third, the names of the 
nahchatras, or lunar houses of the calendar of the Hindoos. I 
dare flatter myself that those of my readers who will examine 
this comparative table attentively will be interested in the dis- 
cussion into which we must enter regarding the first divisions of 
the zodiac. 





BIGN8 OF THE ZODIAC. 














Hieroglyphs of the Days 


Nakchatras or 




















of the 


Lunar Houses of 


Hindooa, 


Mantclioo- 






Mexican Calendar. 


the Hindoo!. 


Greeks, and 


Tartari. 


Japanese. 


Thibetans. 






Eastern Nations. 










Aquarius. 


Singueri. 


Ne. 


TcMp, rat, water. 


Atl, water. [eter. 




Capricornus. 


Ouker. 


Ous. 


Lang, ox. 


Cipactii, marine mon- 


(The mahara 


Sagittarius. 


Pars. 


Terra. 


Tah, tiger. 


Ocelotl, tiger. 


is a marine 


Scorpio. 


Taoulai. 


Ov. 


Jo, hare. 


Tochtli, hare. 


monster.) 


Libra. 


Lon. 


Tats. 


Bron, dragon. 


Cohuail, serpent. 


Serpent. 


Virgo. 


Mosai. 


Mi. 


Proul, serpent. 


Acatl, reed. 


Beed. 


Leo. 


Morin. 


Ouma. 


Tha, horse. 


Tecpatl, flint (knife). 


Kazor. [Vishnu 


Cancer. 


Koin. 


Tsltsouse. 


Lon, goat. 


Ollin, path of the pun. 


Foot-tracks of 


Gemini. 


Petchi. 


Bar. 


Pre^ow, monkey. 


Oeomatli, monkey. 


Monkey. 


Taurus. 


Tukia. 


Torn. 


Tcha, bird. 


QuauMU, bird. 




Aries. 


Nokai. 


In. 


Ky, dog. 


Itzcuintli, dog. 


A dog's tail. 


Pisces. 


Gacai. 


Y. 


Pah, hog. 


Calli, house. 


House. 



From the most ancient times, the people of Asia have known 
two systems of dividing the ecliptic : one into twenty-seven or 
twenty-eight houses, or lunar mansions, the other into twelve 
parts. The opinion which has been advanced, that this last 
method of division existed only among the Egyptians, is erro- 
neous. The oldest monuments of Indian literature, the works of 
Kalidasa, and of Amarsinh, mention both the twelve signs of 
the zodiac, and the twenty-seven " Companions of the Moon." 
From our knowledge concerning the communications which oc- 
curred several thousand years before our era, between the nations 
of Ethiopia, of Upper Egypt, and of Hindostan, we are justified 
in dismissing the supposition that all that the Egyptians trans- 
mitted to the Grecian tribes appertained exclusively to them. 

The division of the ecliptic into twenty-seven or twenty-eight 
lunar houses, is probably more ancient than the division into 
twelve parts, connected with the annual movement of the sun. 
The phenomena which are repeated in the same order with every 
revolution of the moon, attract the attention of mankind more 
readily than changes of position, of which the cycle is com- 
pleted only in the space of a year. . . . 



COINCIDENCES NOTED BY HUMBOLDT. 145 

"«' Examining first the analogy which the names of the 
Mexican days offer to the signs of the Thibetan, Chinese, Tar- 
tarian, and Mongolian zodiac, the analogy is found to be very 
striking in the eight hieroglyphs called atl, cipactli, ocelotl, 
tochtli, cohuatl, quauhtli, ozomatli, and itzcuintli. Atl, water, is 
often indicated by a hieroglyph, of which the parallel lines and 
undulations recall the sign which we employ to designate 
Aquarius. The first tse, or catasterism, of the Chinese zodiac, 
the rat {chu\ is also frequently found represented by the figure 
of water. At the time of the reign of the emperor Chuen-hiu, 
there was a great deluge ; and the celestial sign hiuen-hiao, 
which corresponds in position with our Aquarius, is the symbol 
of his reign. So P^re Souciet observes, in his "Researches upon 
the Cycles and the Zodiacs," that China and Europe agree in 
representing, under different names, the sign which we call 
Amphora, or Aquarius. Among the western people the water 
which falls from the vase of the water-bearer forms another con- 
stellation {Hydor), to which the beautiful stars Fomahand and 
Deneh kaitos belong, as is proved by several passages from 
Aratus, Geminus, and Scholiaste de Germanicus. 

Cipactli is a marine animal. This hieroglyph presents a strik- 
ing analogy with Capricornus, which the Hindoos and other 
people of Asia call a marine monster. The Mexican sign indi- 
cates a fabulous animal, a cetacean armed with a horn. Gomara 
and Torquemada call it espadarte, a name by which the Spaniards 
designate the narwhal, of which the great tooth is known by the 
name of the unicorn's horn. Boturini has mistaken this horn 
for a harpoon, and erroneously translates cipactli by " serpent 
armed with harpoons." As this sign does not represent a real 
animal, it is very natural that its form should vary more than 
those of the other signs. Sometimes the horn appears to be a 
prolongation of the muzzle, as in the famous fish oxyrinque, rep- 
resented in the place of the southern fish beneath Capricornus 
in some Indian planispheres ; in other cases the horn is lacking 
entirely. Casting the eyes upon figures copied from very an- 
cient designs and reliefs, it is seen that Valades, Boturini, and 
Clavigero have all erroneously represented the first hieroglyph 
of the Mexican days as a shark, or a lizard. In the manuscript 
of the Borgian Museum, the head of the cipactli resembles that 
of a crocodile ; and this same name of crocodile is given, by Son- 
10 



146 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

nerat, to the tenth sign of the Indian zodiac, which is our Capri- 
cornus. 

In addition, the idea of the marine animal cipactli is found 
united in the Mexican mythology with the history of a man, who, 
at the time of the destruction of the fourth sun, after having 
floated upon the water for a long time, was saved, alone, by 
attaining the top of the mountain of Colhuacan. "We have else- 
where observed that the Noah of the Aztecs, who was usually 
called " Coxcox," bore also the name of *' Teo-cipactli," in which 
the word "^Of?," or " divine,''^ is added to that of the sign cipactli. 
In casting the eyes upon the zodiac of the Asiatic tribes, we find 
that the Capricornus of the Hindoos is the fabulous fish mahara^ 
or souro, celebrated for its exploits, and represented from the 
most remote antiquity as a marine monster with the head of a 
gazelle. 

As the people of India, as well as the Mexicans, often indi- 
cate the nakchatras (lunar houses) and the laquenons (the 
twelve signs of the zodiac) merely by the heads of the animals 
which compose the lunar and solar zodiacs, it is not at all sur- 
prising that the western nations have transformed the mahara 
into Capricornus {alyoKspug), and that Aratus, Ptolemy, and the 
Persian Kazwini have not given it even a fish's tail. An ani- 
mal which, after having lived in the water for a long time, takes 
the form of a gazelle, and climbs the mountains, reminds the 
people, of whom the restless imagination seizes upon the most 
distant aifinities, of the ancient traditions of Menu, of Noah, and 
of the Deucalions celebrated among the Scythians and the Thes- 
salians. It is true that, according to Germanicus, Deucalion, 
who may be considered to resemble Coxcox, or Teo-cipactli of 
the Mexican mythology, should be placed, not in the sign Capri- 
cornus, but in Aquarius, the sign which immediately follows it. 
This circumstance, however, is not surprising, as it merely con- 
firms the ingenious view of M. Bailly regarding the ancient con- 
nection of the three signs, Pisces, Aquarius, and Capricornus or 
the fish-gazelle. 

Ocelotl, tiger, the jaguar {felis oncd) of the warm regions of 
Mexico ; tochtli, hare ; ozomatli, she-monkey ; itzcuintli, dog ; 
cohuatl, serpent ; quauhtli, bird, are the catasterisms which are 
found under the same name in the Tartarian and Thibetan 
zodiac. In Chinese astronomy the hare is not only the fourth 



COINCIDENCES NOTED BY HUMBOLDT. 147 

tse, or sign of the zodiac, but the moon, since the remote epoch of 
the reign of Yao, has been figured as a disk, in which a hare, sit- 
ting upon its hind feet, turns a stick in a vessel, as if making but- 
ter ; a puerile fancy which may have had its origin in the plains 
of Tartary, where hares abound, and which are inhabited by pas- 
toral tribes. The Mexican monkey, ozomatli, corresponds to the 
heu of the Chinese, the petchi of the Mantchoos, and the prehoii 
of the Thibetans, three names which designate the same animal. 
Procyon appears to be the monkey JTanuan, so known in the 
Hindoo mythology, and the position of this star, placed upon the 
same line with Gemini and the pole of the ecliptic, corresponds 
very well with the place which the monkey occupies in the Tar- 
tar zodiac, between Cancer and Taurus. Monkeys are also found 
in the heaven of the Arabs. They are the stars of the constella- 
tion Canis Major, called El-JiuriXd in the catalogue of Kazwini. 
I enter into these details concerning the sign ozomatli because it 
is a very important point, not only in the history of astronomy, 
but also in that of the migrations of the tribes, to find an animal 
of the torrid zone placed among the constellations of the Mon- 
golian, Mantchoo, Aztec, and Toltec tribes. 

The sign itzcuintli, dog, corresponds with the last sign but one\ 
of the Tartarian zodiac, the Jcy of the Thibetans, the noJcai of 
the Mantchoos, and the hi of the Japanese. Pere Gaubil informs 
us that the dog of the Tartarian zodiac is our sign Aries ; and it 
is very remarkable that, according to le Gentil, although the 
Hindoos were not acquainted with the series of signs which com- 
mences with the rat, Aries is sometimes replaced by a wild dog. 
In the same way, among the Mexicans itzcumtU designates the 
wild dog, for they call their domestic dog tecMchi. Mexico 
formerly abounded with carnivorous quadrupeds which united 
the qualities of the dog and the wolf, and which Hernandez 
has described to us but imperfectly. The race of these animals, 
known by the names of xoloitzciiintli, itzcui7itepotzotli, and tepeitz- 
cuintli, is probably not entirely extinct, but they have more likely 
retired into the wildest and most remote forests ; for in the part 
of the country which I have passed through I have never heard 
a wild dog mentioned. 

Le Gentil and Bailly have been misled in the opinion which 
they have advanced that the word m^cha, which designates our 
ram, signifies a wild dog. This Sanskrit word is the common 



148 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

name of the ram, and it has been employed very poetically by an 
Indian author who, describing the combat of two warriors, says 
that " by their heads they were two mochas (rams), by their 
arms two elephants, by their feet two noble coursers." 

The following table shows at one view the signs of the Tar- 
tarian zodiac and the names of the days of the Mexican calendar, 
which are alike : 

Zodiac of the Tartar-Mantchoos. Zodiac of the Mexicans. 

Pars, tiger. Ocelotl, tiger. 

Taoulai, hare. Tochtli, hare, rabbit. 

Mogai, serpent. Cohuatl, serpent. 

Petchi, monkey. OzomatU, monkey. 

Nokai, dog. Itzcuintli, dog. 

Thikia, bird, fowl. Quauhtli, bird, eagle. 

Without connecting the hieroglyphs water (atl) and the 
marine monster (cipactli), which offer a striking analogy with the 
zodiacal signs of Aquarius and Capricornus, the six signs of the 
Tartarian zodiac which are also found in the Mexican calendar 
are sufficient to make it extremely probable that the nations of 
the two continents have drawn their astronomical ideas from a 
common source, and it is worthy of notice that the points of 
resemblance upon which we insist are not derived from rude 
pictures or allegories, susceptible of being interpreted in ac- 
cordance with any hypothesis that it is desired to sustain. If 
we consult the works composed at the time of the conquest, by 
Spanish authors, or by American Indians who were ignorant of 
the existence of a Tartarian zodiac, it will be seen that in Mex- 
ico, from the seventh century until our era, the days have been 
called " tiger," " dog," " monkey," " hare " or " rabbit," as, 
throughout Eastern Asia, the years bear the same names among 
the Thibetans, the Tartar-Mantchoos, the Mongols, the Calmucks, 
the Chinese, the Japanese, the Coreans, and among the nations 
of Tonquin and Cochin-China. 

It is conceivable that nations which never had any connection 
may have similarly divided the ecliptic into twenty-seven or 
twenty-eight parts, and given to each lunar day the name of the 
stars near which the moon is found to be placed in its progress- 
ive movement from west to east. It also appears very natural 
that pastoral and hunting nations should designate the constel- 
lations and the lunar days by the names of the animals which 



COINCIDENCES NOTED BY HUMBOLDT. 149 

are the constant objects of their affections or their fears. The 
heaven of the nomad tribes may be found to be peopled with 
dogs, deer, bulls, and wolves, without furnishing sufficient ground 
for the conclusion that the tribes have ever formerly made parts 
of the same nation. Traits of resemblance which are purely acci- 
dental, or which arise from a similarity of circumstances or lo- 
cation, should not be confounded with those which are the results 
of a common origin or of ancient communication. 

But the Tartarian and Mexican zodiacs are not confined ex- 
clusively to animals found in the regions inhabited by these 
nations now ; in both, the tiger and the monkey are also found. 
The two animals are unknown upon the plateau of Eastern and 
Central Asia, to which the great elevation gives a colder temper- 
ature than that which is found in the same latitude farther east. 
The Thibetans, the Mongolians, the Mantchoos, and the Cal- 
mucks have therefore received from a more southerly country the 
zodiac which has, too exclusively, been called the Tartarian cycle. 
The Toltecs, the Aztecs, the TIascaltecs migrated from the north 
toward the south ; we know of Aztec monuments as far north as 
the banks of the Gila, between 33° and 34° north latitude, and 
history informs us that the Toltecs came formerly from regions 
still farther north. The colonists coming from Aztlan did not 
arrive as barbarian tribes ; everything announces the remains of 
an ancient civilization as existing among them. 

The names given to the cities which they constructed were 
the names of the places which their ancestors had inhabited ; 
their laws, their annals, their chronology, the order of their sacri- 
fices, were modeled upon the knowledge which they had acquired 
in their father-land. Now, the monkeys and the tigers, which 
figure among the hieroglyphs of the days, and in the Mexican 
traditions of the four ages, or destructions of the sun, do not live 
in the northern part of New Spain, or on the northwestern coast 
of America. As a consequence, the signs ozomatli and ocelotl ren- 
der it extremely probable that the zodiacs of the Toltecs, the 
Aztecs, the Mongolians, the Thibetans, and many other nations, 
which are now separated by a vast extent of country, originated 
at the same point in the Old World. 

The lunar houses of the Hindoos, in which we find also a 
monkey, a serpent, a dog's tail, and the head of a gazelle, or of 
a marine monster, offer still other signs, of which the names re- 



150 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

call those of calUy acatl, tecpatl, and ollin of the Mexican calen- 
dar. 

Indian Nakchatras. .Mexican Signs. 

Ifaffha, house. Calli, house. 

Venu, cane (reed). Acatl, cane (reed). 

Critica, razor. Tecpatl, flint, stone knife. 

Sravana, three foot-printa. Ollin, movement of the sun, 

figured by three foot-prints. 

We can not help noticing that the Aztec word calli has the 
same signification as Jcuala or kolla, among the Wogouls, who 
live upon the banks of the Kama and the Irtish, as atl, the 
Aztec word for water, and itels (river) recall the words atel, 
atelch, etel or idel (river) in the languages of the Mongolian Tar- 
tars, the Tcheremissians, and the Tchuwassians. The denomina- 
tion of calli, house, also designates very well a lunar station or 
inn {mendzil el kamar, in Arabian), a place of repose. So, also, 
among the Indian nakchatras, in addition to the houses {magha 
and punarvasu), we also find a bedstead and a couch. 

The Mexican sign acatl, cane, is generally drawn as two reeds 
tied together ; but the stone found in Mexico in 1790, and which 
offers the hieroglyphs of the days, represents the sign acatl in a 
very different manner. We recognize there a bundle of rushes, 
or a sheaf of maize, contained in a vase. We recall, in this con- 
nection, the fact that, in the first period of thirteen days of the 
year tochtli, the sign acatl is constantly accompanied by Cinteotl, 
who is the goddess of maize, the Ceres of the Mexicans, the di- 
vinity who presides over agriculture. Among the western peo- 
ple, Ceres is placed in the fifth of the twelve signs. We also 
find very ancient zodiacs in which a bundle of ears of grain fills 
all the place which should be occupied by Ceres, Isis, Astree, or 
Erigone, in the sign of the harvests and vintages. Thus we 
find that, from a high antiquity, the same ideas, the same sym- 
bols, the same tendency to think physical phenomena dependent 
upon the mysterious influence of the stars, existed among nations 
the most widely separated from one another. 

The Mexican hieroglyph tecpatl indicates a cutting-stone of 
an oval form, elongated toward the two extremities, similar to 
those which are used as knives, or which are attached to the 
end of a pike. This sign recalls the critica, or cutting-knife, 
of the lunar zodiac of the Hindoos. Upon the large stone (rep- 



COmCIDENOES NOTED BY HUMBOLDT. 151 

resented in a plate given in the original French edition), the 
hieroglyph tecpatl is figured in a different manner from the form 
ordinarily given to it. The stone is pierced in the center, and 
the opening appears to be intended to receive the hand of the 
warrior who uses this two-pointed weapon. It is known that 
the Americans had a peculiar method of piercing the hardest 
stones and of working them into shape by friction. I brought 
from South America, and deposited in the Berlin Museum, an 
obsidian ring, which had served for a young girl's bracelet, and 
which formed a hollow cylinder of almost seven centimetres in- 
ternal diameter, and four centimetres height, and of which the 
thickness is not more than three millimetres. It is difficult to 
conceive how a vitreous and fragile mass can have been reduced 
to so thin a band. Tecpatl, however, differed in other respects 
from obsidian, a substance which the Mexicans called iztli. Un- 
der the name tecpatl, jade, hornblende, and flint were con- 
founded. 

The sign ollin, or olUn tonatiuh, presided, in the beginning of 
the cycle of fifty-two years, over the seventeenth day of the 
first month. The explanation of this sign greatly embarrassed 
the Spanish monks, who, destitute of the most elementary prin- 
ciples of astronomy, attempted to describe the Mexican calen- 
dar. The Indian authors translated ollin by movements of the 
Sim. When they found the number nahui (four) added, they 
rendered nahui ollin by the words " the sun (tonatiuh) in its 
four movements." The sign ollin is made in three ways : some- 
times like two interlaced ribbons, or rather like two parts of 
the curved lines, which intersect and have three distinct folds 
upon their summits ; sometimes, like the solar disk, inclosed by 
four squares, which contained the hieroglyphs of the numbers one 
(ce) and four {nahui) ; sometimes like three foot-prints. The 
four squares, as we shall hereafter show, alluded to the famous 
tradition of the four ages, or four destructions of the world, 
which occurred upon the days /oi<r tiger {nahui ocelotl),four 
wind {nahui ehecatl), four rain {nahui quiahuitl), and four 
water {nahui ad), in the years one reed {ce acatl), one flint {ce 
tecpatl), and ce calli, one house. The solstices, the equinoxes, 
and the passages of the sun past the zenith of the city of 
Tenochtitlan, correspond very nearly to these days. The repre- 
sentation of the sign ollin by three xocjxdli, or foot-prints, such as 



152 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

are often found in the manuscripts preserved in the Vatican and 
in the Codex JBorgianus, folio 47, n. 210, is remarkable from the 
analogy which it offers in appearance with sravana, or " the 
Three Foot-prints of Vishnu," one of the mansions of the lunar 
zodiac of the Hindoos. In the Mexican calendar the three foot- 
prints indicate either the course of the sun in its passage to the 
equator, and in its movement toward the two tropics, or the 
three positions of the sun, in the zenith, upon the equator, and at 
one of the solstices. It may be possible that the lunar zodiac 
of the Hindoos contains some sign which, like that of Libra, re- 
lates to the course of the sun. We have seen that the zodiac of 
twenty-eight signs may have been transformed, little by little, 
into a zodiac of twelve mansions of the full moon, and that some 
naJcchatras may have changed their name since the zodiac of 
the full moon has, from a knowledge of the annual movement 
of the sun, become a true solar zodiac. Krishna, the Apollo of 
the Hindoos, is in fact nothing but Vishnu under the form of the 
sun, who is adored more particularly under the name of the god 
Stirya. In spite of this analogy of ideas and of signs, we think 
that the three foot-prints which indicate sravana, the twenty- 
third of the naJcchatras, have only an accidental resemblance 
with the three foot-tracks which represent the sign ollin. M. de 
Chezy, who unites a profound knowledge of the Persian to that 
of the Sanskrit, observes that the sravana of the Indian zodiac 
alludes to a legend which is very celebrated among the Hindoos, 
and which is recorded in most of their sacred books, particularly 
in the BTidgavat Pilrdnd. Vishnu, wishing to punish the pride 
of a giant, who thought himself as powerful as the gods, present- 
ed himself before him in the form of a dwarf, and begged him to 
give him in his vast empire the space which he could inclose by 
three of his paces. The giant smilingly granted his request ; but 
immediately the dwarf grew so prodigiously that with two paces 
he measured the distance between the heavens and the earth. 
As he demanded a place to set his foot for the third pace, the 
giant recognized the god Vishnu, and prostrated himself before 
him. This fact explains so well the figure of the nakchatra named 
sravana, that it seems difficult to admit that the sign can be 
connected with that of ollin, as cipactli and the Mexican Noah, 
Teo-cipactli, are connected with the constellation Capricornus 
and with Deucalion, placed formerly in Aquarius. 



COmCIDENCES NOTED BY HUMBOLDT. I53 

We have thus developed the connection which exists between 
the signs composing the different zodiacs of India, of Thibet, and 
of Tartary and the hieroglyphs of the days and the years of the 
Mexican calendar. We have found that among the proofs of 
such connection the most striking and the most numerous are 
those which are presented by the cycle of twelve animals, which 
we have designated by the name of the Tartarian and Thibetan 
zodiac. In terminating a discussion of which the results are so 
important in regard to the history of the ancient communication 
of the nations, it remains for us to examine the last zodiac more 
closely, and to prove that in the system of Asiatic astronomy, 
with which the Mexican astronomy appears to have had a com- 
mon origin, the twelve signs of the zodiac presided not only over 
the months, but also over the years, the days, the hours, and even 
the smallest divisions of the hours. . . . 

1594 "VVherever we observe at the same time several divisions 
of the ecliptic which differ, not in the number of the signs, but 
in their general names, as the tse, the tchi, and the celestial ani- 
mals of the Chinese, the Thibetans, and the Tartars, this multi- 
plicity of signs is probably due to a mixture of several nations, 
which have been subjugated one by another. The effects of this 
mixture, particularly of the influence exercised by the conquerors 
upon the conquered, are especially manifest in the northeastern 
part of Asia, in which the languages, in spite of the great num- 
ber of Mongolian and Tartarian roots which they contain, differ 
so essentially among themselves, that they seem to be incapable 
of any methodical classification. The greater the distance from 
Thibet and Hindostan, the greater the difference in the type of 
the civil institutions, in knowledge, and in culture. Now, if the 
tribes of Eastern Siberia, among whom the dogmas of Buddhism 
have evidently penetrated, show but feebly their connection 
with the civilized nations of Eastern Asia, we need not be sur- 
prised that in the New Continent we find only a few points of 
analogy in the traditions, in the chronology, and in the style of 
the ancient monuments, while in other respects we discern a 
great number of striking differences. When nations of Tartarian 
or Mongolian origin, transplanted to foreign shores, mixed with 
the hordes indigenous to America, and traced out painfully a 
path toward civilization, their languages, their mythology, their 
divisions of time, all took a character of individuality which 



154 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

effaced, so to say, the primitive type of their national physiog- 
nomy. . . . 

'^" Thibet and Mexico present very remarkable traits of 
connection in their ecclesiastical hierarchy, in the number of 
their religious fraternities, in the extreme austerity of their pen- 
ances, and in the order of the processions. It is impossible to 
fail to be struck with these resemblances, when reading with 
attention the account which Cortez gave to the Emperor Charles 
the Fifth of his solemn entry into Cholula, which he called the 
holy city of the Mexicans. . . . 

^^^^ Of all the traits of analogy which have been observed 
in the monuments, in the manners, and in the traditions of the 
nations of Asia and America, the most striking is that which the 
Mexican mythology presents in its fable regarding the system of 
the universe, of its periodic destructions and regenerations. 
This fable, which unites the idea of a renewal of matter sup- 
posed to be indestructible with the completion of great cycles, 
and which attributes to space that which appears to appertain 
only to time, goes back to the greatest antiquity. The sacred 
books of the Hindoos, especially the J^hdgavat PiXrdnd, speak 
of the four ages and of the pralayas, or cataclysms, which at 
different epochs have caused the destruction of the human spe- 
cies. A tradition oifive ages, analogous to that of the Mexicans, 
is found upon the plateau of Thibet. It is true that this astro- 
logical fable, which has become the basis of a system of cos- 
mogony, had its birth in Hindostan ; it is probable, also, that 
from there it passed to the western nations by the way of Iran 
and Chaldea. The resemblance between the Indian tradition of 
the yugas and the Jcalpaa, the cycles of the ancient inhabitants 
of Etruria, and this series of exterminated generations, charac- 
terized by Hesiod under the emblem of four metals, should not 
be forgotten. 

The nations of Culhua, or of Mexico, says Gomara, who 
wrote in the middle of the sixteenth century, believed, according 
to their hieroglyphical paintings, that before the sun which now 
shines upon them, there existed four others which were de- 
stroyed one after another. The " five suns " are as many ages in 
which our species has been annihilated by inundations, by earth- 
quakes, by a universal conflagration, and by the effect of hurri- 
canes. After the destruction of the fourth sun, the world was 



COINCIDENCES NOTED BY LOBSCHEID. 155 

plunged into darkness for the space of twenty-five years. It was 
in the middle of this profound night, ten years before the ap- 
pearance of the fifth sun, that the human race was re-created. . . . 

1699 ^g j^ jjj^y. cause surprise to find five ages, or suns, among 
the Mexican tribes, while the Hindoos and the Greeks admit 
only four, it is worthy of notice that the Mexican cosmogony 
is in accord with that of the Thibetans, who also regard the 
present age as the fifth. If we examine with care the beautiful 
fragment of an earlier tradition, preserved by Hesiod, in which he 
explains the Oriental system of the renewal of nature, it will be 
seen that this author really counts five creations in four ages. 
He divides the period of bronze into two parts, which make up 
the third and fourth creations ; and it is surprising that so clear 
a passage has sometimes been misinterj^reted. 

We are ignorant as to the number of ages referred to in the 
Sibylline books ; but we think that the analogies which we indi- 
cate are not accidental, and that it is not without interest for the 
philosophical history of man to see the same fables scattered 
from Etruria to Thibet, and from there to the Cordilleras of 
Mexico. 

Extracts from the " Grammar of the Chinese Language''^ — hy 
the Rev. W. Lohscheid. 

"'^ Amebic A.N Indians apparently One Race with the 
Japanese AND Eastern Asiatics. — . . . In passing across the Isth- 
mus of Panama, and in Mexico, I was struck with the similarity 
of architecture between the Chinese and these people. Instead of 
excavating mountains, instead of making expensive vaults, all the 
principal edifices are erected on elevated ground. The tiles of the 
roofs are concave and convex, just as we have them in China ; 
the anchors of their boats are the same as we find them in Japan 
and the north of China, i. e., with four hooks without a barb ; 
and innumerable other manners, customs, and peculiarities of 
civilization agree exactly with those of Eastern Asia, as in no 
other country of the world. 

We now come to inquire as to how these tribes could reach 
America. During the summer months, when the sun did not set 
for one whole month, the inhabitants of the extreme parts of 
Northeastern Asia, either pressed by hostile tribes, or from an im- 
pulse of adventure, must have crossed over to the American Conti- 



156 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

nent, wbere, either by hunting or fishing, they could easily sup- 
port themselves and provide for their wants during the coming 
winter. Wave after wave of immigration is likely to have rolled 
on ; and if only at long intervals a few returned to their native 
place, that was sufficient to account for a knowledge of a large 
Eastern Continent, floating among the Chinese, Japanese, and 
other Asiatics. 

The large fleets of fishing-boats about the coasts of Japan and 
China are, we know, frequently overtaken by tremendous gales, 
and either destroyed or carried eastward. We know of Japa- 
nese junks having been picked up beyond the Sandwich Islands, 
and close to the shore of America, after an absence of more than 
nine months. But much more. Large fleets of war- junks, some- 
times manned by as many as one hundred thousand men, have 
left the coast of China and Japan, and have been scattered by the 
northwest gales, and but few of these ever survived or returned. 
It is not unlikely that these junks, being well provisioned, 
have continued in their eastern course, until, within 28° north 
latitude, they fell in with the trade-wind, which compelled them 
to change their course, and carried them toward Mexico or Lower 
California, where they laid the foundation of that kind of civiliza- 
tion which resembles so closely that of the Chinese and Japanese. 
Look at the Chinese dress five or six centuries ago, and you have 
the head-dress of the Mexicans ; look at the monstrous uniforms 
and coats-of-mail, and at the head-dress of the Japanese women, 
and you will be struck with their similarity to the Mexicans. As 
all the kings, chiefs, and priests — in one word, all the creators of 
that peculiar civilization — were destroyed by the /Spa?iiards, we 
need not wonder at the low ebb of education of the present race, 
who are merely the children of peasants and the lower classes. 
Were Chinese who speak the different dialects and well versed 
in their own literature, and Japanese of education, well furnished 
with ancient works, sent with scientific men to America, we 
may rest assured, they would soon decipher the inscriptions now 
fast going to ruin. 

Summary of Similarity of the American Indians with the 
Japanese, Chinese, and Northern Asiatics.— I. Language. 
Monosyllabic, as spoken by the Otomi and other tribes. Hiero- 
glyphs, or ideographic characters, on the same principle as the 



COINCIDENCES NOTED BY LOBSOHEID. 157 

Chinese ; absence of the R among the tribes where the ideo- 
graphic characters are found ; prevalence of hissing sounds and 
gutturals, and most words terminating in a vowel. 2. Poly- 
syllabic language of a syllabic character, representing, not sound, 
but syllables, as in Japan. Japanese words detected in the Indian 
language ; Japanese form of the possessive case ; prevalence of 
the R, and the termination of every word in a voicel except 
theR. 

II, Religion. The most ancient religion of the Indians, now -^ 
forming the wandering tribes, is the belief in one Great Spirit, 
whom they worship, like the Japanese their Sin (spirit), without 
image. In both places, long, hortatory addresses are delivered to 

the audience, and both exhibit profound reverence of that spirit, 
and deep religious feelings. The polytheistic form of worship, as 
found in Mexico, etc., is, according to accepted history, the most 
modern one, and was, if we believe Chinese legends, introduced by 
Buddhists and shaman priests, about the beginning of the sixth • /^ 
century of our era, which nearly coincides with the commence- 
ment of the Toltecan history, which is put down at a. d. 596, The 
dragon or serpent worship was very prevalent. That the Chi- 
nese dragon is nothing but a serpent, can be proved from the fact 
that at this moment serpents are kept in temples as representa- 
tives of the ancient dragon. They resembled the Chinese and 
(Buddhist) Japanese in their ideas of " the transmigration of the 
soul ; in the monastic forms and discipline ; in their penances, 
ablutions, alms-givings, and public festivals ; in the worship of 
their household gods ; in the devotions of the priests to the study 
of astrology and astronomy ; in the admission of virgin females 
to the vows and rites of the cloister ; in the incense and chants 
of their worship ; in their use of charms and amulets ; in some 
of their forms of burning their dead, and the preservation of the 
ashes in urns, and in the assumption of the right to educate the 
youth." Among other superstitious notions is the one of a celes- 
tial dragon endeavouring to devour the sun during its eclipse, 
and their fondness for the drum, gong, and rattle, _--^ 

III. Customs. The dragon-standard ; banner-lances, as we 
find them in Chinese Buddhist temples ; ensigns and banners 
stuck in a ferula, fixed at the back of a warrior. A kind of her- 
aldry as we meet among the Japanese. Some of their nuptials 
were symbolized by the ceremony of tying the garments of the 



158 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

two contracting parties together. There was only one lawful 
wife, though a plurality of concubines. I have already referred 
to the similarity of dress, architecture, and anchors of ships. 

Physiologically considered, there is not the slightest difference 
between these tribes and those of Japan and China, and the tribes 
among themselves differ no more from each other than the peo- 
ple of Europe of one and the same stock. 

Extracts from the " History of the Conquest of Mexico " — by 
William H. Prescott. 

^''^^ An obvious analogy is found in cosmogonal traditions 
and religious usages. The reader has already been made ac- 
quainted with the Aztec system of four great cycles, at the end of 
each of which the world was destroyed, to be again regenerated. 
The belief in these periodical convulsions of nature, through the 
agency of some one or other of the elements, was familiar to 
many countries in the Eastern Hemisphere ; and, though varying 
in detail, the general resemblance of outline furnishes an argu- 
ment in favour of a common origin. The fanciful division of 
time into four or five cycles or ages was found among the Hin- 
doos ("Asiatic Researches," vol. ii, mem. 7), the Thibetans 
(Humboldt, " Vues des Cordill^res," p. 210), the Persians (Bailly, 
" Traite de I'Astronomie," Paris, 1T87, tome i, discours prelimi- 
naire), the Greeks (Hesiod, ""Epya /cat "Hjuepai," v, 108 et seq.), 
and other people, doubtless. ... 

^"^ " I have purposely omitted noticing the resemblance of re- 
ligious notions, for I do not see how it is possible to separate 
from such views every influence of Christian ideas, if it be only 
from an imperceptible confusion in the mind of the narrator." 
(Quoted from Vater's " Mithridates," Berlin, 1812, Theil III, 
Abtheil 3, p. 82, note.) . . . 

S085 These coincidences must be allowed to furnish an argu- 
ment in favour of some primitive communication with that great 
brotherhood of nations on the Old Continent among whom simi- 
lar ideas have been so widely diffused. The probability of such 
a communication, especially with Eastern Asia, is much strength- 
ened by the resemblance of sacerdotal institutions, and of some 
religious rites — as those of marriage and the burial of the dead ; 
by the practice of human sacrifices, and even of cannibalism — 
traces of which are discernible in the Mongol races ; and, lastly, 



COINCIDENCES NOTED BY PRESCOTT. 159 

by a conformity of social usages and manners so striking that 
the description of Montezuma's court may well pass for that of 
the Grand Khan's, as depicted by Maundeville and Marco Polo. 
It would occupy too much room to go into details in this mat- 
ter, without which, however, the strength of the argument can 
not be felt, nor fully established. It has been done by others ; 
and an occasional coincidence has been adverted to in the preced- 
ing chapters. . . . 

2086 There are certain arbitrary peculiarities, which, when 
found in different nations, reasonably suggest the idea of some 
previous communication between them. Who can doubt the 
existence of an affinity, or at least intercourse, between tribes 
who had the same strange habit of burying the dead in a sitting 
posture, as was practiced to some extent by most, if not all, of 
the aborigines, from Canada to Patagonia ? The habit of burn- 
ing the dead, familiar to both Mongols and Aztecs, is, in itself, 
but slender proof of a common origin. The body must be dis- 
posed of in some way ; and this, perhaps, is as natural as any 
other. But, when to this is added the circumstance of collecting 
the ashes in a vase, and depositing the single article of a precious 
stone along with them, the coincidence is remarkable. Such 
minute coincidences are not unfrequent ; while the accumulation 
of those of a more general character, though individually of little 
account, greatly strengthens the probability of a communication 
with the East. . . . 

2081 j^ proof of a higher kind is found in the analogies of 
science. We have seen the peculiar chronological system of the 
Aztecs — their method of distributing the years into cycles, and 
of reckoning by means of periodical series, instead of numbers. 
A similar process was used by the various Asiatic nations of the 
Mongol family, from India to Japan. . . . 

'^^ It is scarcely possible to reconcile the knowledge of Oriental 
science with the total ignorance of some of the most serviceable 
and familiar arts, as the use of milk and iron, for example — arts 
so simple, yet so important to domestic comfort, that, when once 
acquired, they could hardly be lost. . . . Yet there have been 
people considerably civilized, in Eastern Asia, who were almost 
equally strangers to the use of milk. ... It is possible, more- 
over, that the migration may have been previous to the time 
when iron was used by the Asiatic nation in question. . . . Such 



160 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

is the explanation, unsatisfactory indeed, but the best that sug- 
gests itself, of this curious anomaly. . . . 

3089 -pjjg reader of the preceding pages may, perhaps, acquiesce 
in the general conclusions — not startling by their novelty : 

First, that the coincidences are sufficiently strong to authorize 
a belief that the civilization of Anahuac was, in some degree, in- 
fluenced by that of Eastern Asia ; and, secondly, that the discrep- 
ancies are such as to carry back the communication to a very 
remote period — so remote, that this foreign influence has been 
too feeble to interfere materially with the growth of what may 
be regarded, in its essential features, as a peculiar and indigenous 
civilization. 



CHAPTER X. 

SHOKTER ESSAYS. 

" "Where was Fu-sang ? " — by the Rev. Nathan Brown, D. D. — Difficulties attending 
a decision— Horses — Grapes — Reason for thinking Fu^ang more distant than 
Japan — Length of the li — Distances of the route — Difficulties attending 
Klaproth's theory — The military expeditions of the Japanese — The introduc- 
tion of the Buddhist religion — The Ham — Great Han — Identification of the 
fii-sang tree with the bread-fruit tree — Conclusion — Remarks of the Abbe 
Brasseur de Bourbourg — The paper and books of the Mexicans and Central 
Americans — Civilization of New Mexico — Chinese boats — Animals — Mr. Le- 
land's " Fusang " — An earlier article — Who discovered America ? — J. Hanlay's 
essay — The fusang tree identified with the maguey — Metals — Resemblance 
in religion and customs — Also in features — Language — Civilization on Pacific 
coast — Letter of Mr. Th. Simson — The Mexican aloe — The fusang tree — 
Japan — Letter of E. Bretschneider, M. D. — Accounts of Fusang by the 
Chinese poets — "The Kingdom of Women" — Verdict of Father Hyacinth — 
The distance — Horses and deer — The fusang tree — The t^ung tree — The paper- 
mulberry — Metals — " The Kingdom of Women " and Salt Lake City — Fusang 
not Japan — Ta-han in Siberia — Envoys from Fusang — Contradictory fancies 
— Mr. Leland's criticism — Letter of Pere Gaubil — Unreliability of Chinese 
texts — The peopling of Japan — Chinese knowledge of surrounding countries — 
Remarks of Humboldt — Letter of the Rt. Rev. Channing M. Williams — The 
Chinese " Classic of Mountains and Seas " — Fabulous stories — Translation of 
extracts therefrom — Remarks of M. Leon de Rosny — Passage from Asia to 
America — The distance — Character of the Esquimaux — ^An article from a 
newspaper of British Columbia — Discovery of Chinese coins in the bank of a 
creek — Evidence that they had been buried for a long time. 

*' ^Y^^ere was Fu-sang f " — hy the Eev. JSFathan Brown, D. Z)."" 

It is not a little amusing to observe the regularity with which 
the discovery of an ancient connection between China and Mex- 
ico annually goes the rounds of the newspapers. 

The author of the discovery is generally stated to be Pro- 
fessor Karl Neumann, who has lit upon some old Chinese record 
containing it ; but no dates are given for verifying the fact, and 
no translation of the documents upon which he relies. 
11 



162 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The following paragraph, from the first chapter of Riviere's 
"Peruvian Antiquities," translated by Dr. Hawks, is somewhat 
more definite. After speaking of various theories framed in ref- 
erence to the colonization of America, he says : 

" But the hypothesis which in importance surpasses all these 
is that of de Guignes, who, relying upon the chronicles of 
China, attributes Peruvian civilization to emigration proceeding 
from the ' Celestial Empire,' or the East Indies. Recent inves- 
tigations would seem to confirm this opinion." . . , 

Signor Riviero goes on to say there is *' no doubt " that Que- 
tzalcoatl, Bochica, Manco Capac, and other reformers of Central 
America were Buddhist priests. Such random assertions are a 
positive injury to archaeological science ; they destroy confidence, 
not only in the author who makes them, but in antiquarian re- 
searches generally. The connection of the Mexican mythology 
vs^ith Buddhism is a thing to be proved, not assumed as a matter 
beyond doubt. Buddhism is the most gentle and inoffensive of 
all the heathen religions ; it is as unlike to the bloody religion 
of the Aztecs as it is to the cruel rites of the Brahmanical wor- 
shipers of Siva, and Durga. If an idol is to be found in Yuca- 
tan combining these two opposite forms of worship, it is a 
phenomenon well worth the study of the learned. But, before 
attempting a solution of the enigma, we want certain proof that 
such a combination exists. . . . 

The difficulties presented . . . are formidable, whether, with 
Klaproth, we suppose that the Chinese account refers to Japan, 
or with de Guignes, that it refers to America. The former 
asserts that neither the vine nor horses were known in America 
till after the time of Columbus, and that this circumstance alone 
disproves the theory of de Guignes. But such a summary dis- 
posal of the question can not be admitted. The fossil remains 
of this continent have not been sufficiently examined to decide 
that the bones of the horse are not among them. But were this 
point settled, it would still be very supposable that some other 
animal might be intended by the word translated " horses." In 
regard to the grape, M. Klaproth is certainly mistaken. New 
England, as early as the year 1000, was called by the Norwe- 
gians Yinland, or "the Land of Vines," from the abundance of 
grapes which they, found there. 

The narrative of Hoei Shin is classed by Klaproth with the 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 163 

stories and exaggerations of the Chinese poets, who make lu- 
sang their land of fables, a country lying in the remote East, 
where the sun rises and makes his toilet. . . . 

Other passages say that beyond the Southeastern Ocean, be- 
tween the Kan-shui, or "Sweet Rivers," lies the kingdom of 
Ghi-ioa-kofy where lived the virgin Ghi-ica, or Ili-ho, who mar- 
ried the prince of Ghi-ica and gave birth to ten suns. 

But these fables are rather against than in favour of M. Klap- 
roth's theory ; for the poets would have been more likely to 
select, as the scene of the marvelous, a remote and unknown 
country rather than one so near as Japan. The life-like particu- 
larity of Hoei Shbi's account evidently raises it out of the region 
of fable, and compels us to regard it as a matter-of-fact descrip- 
tion of some existing country. But where is Ta-hanf De Guig- 
nes says this country is Kamtchatka ; Klaproth says it is Taraikai, 
or Saghalien. . . , 

The distance from the mouth of the Hoang-ho to the coast of 
North America, by a direct eastern course, would be from 6,.500 
to 7,000 miles ; corresponding very well to 20,000 Chinese li, as at 
present reckoned. But the question arises, whether Hoei Shin in- 
tends to say that Fa-sang is equally distant from China and from 
Ta-han, or whether he means that Fu-sang is at the same dis- 
tance from Ta-han that Ta-han is from China. The latter sense 
would require the translation to read : " Ft-sa?ig is 20,000 li east of 
the country of Ta-han, and it [meaning Ta-han\ is equally distant 
to the east of China." This would locate Ta-han on the road to 
Fi-sang, instead of making Ta-han and China the basis of an 
isosceles triangle, of which Fu-sang is the apex. It would render 
the account more natural and consistent ; for if Fu-sang is in 
an easterly direction from both the other countries, we must infer 
that the three were nearly in a line. 

If we adopt Li-yan-cheu\ statement of the route to Ta-han, 
whether the latter be Saghalien or Kamtchatka, we must contract • 
our estimate of the li, and that will bring Fu-sang proportionately 
nearer. 

As navigation in those early times was generally along the 
shore, with very little means of accurately measuring distances 
by water, it will not perhaps be unreasonable to allow, on the 
average, six nautical li to the mile, and then 20,000 li would 
just be sufficient to land us in Oregon or California. From the 



164 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

southern point of Kamtchatka to Alaska the distance is about 
one thousand miles, and to Oregon as much farther ; so that of 
the 20,000 11, or 3,300 miles, we would have a surplus of 1,300 
miles to allow for the windings along the coast. The stages of 
the voyage would then become : From Corea to the chief port in 
Japan (making a very large allowance for winding course), 2,000 
miles ; thence to Wen-shin (either in Jesso or Saghalien), 1,100 
miles ; thence to Kamtchatka, 800 miles ; thence to Fa-sajig, a 
long stretch of 3,300 miles. 

Thus we see there is no insuperable objection to the theory 
of de Guignes. On the contrary, the supposition of Klaproth, 
that Fit-sang was the southern j)art of Japan, involves us in inex- 
tricable difficulties. 

It makes Li-yan-cheu and Iloei Shin contradict each other : 
one affirming that Japan is 12,000 U distant, the other that it is 
20,000 ; one declaring that it is east of Ta-hmi, the other that it is 
directly south. Klaproth endeavours to show that the fu-sang tree 
is the mulberry, of which the Japanese make paper ; but it would 
be very difficult to discover any resemblance between a mulberry- 
plant and the shoot of a young bamboo. Nor would its fruit be 
compared to a pear, which it does not at all resemble in form. 
At the period in question, the beginning of the sixth century, 
Japan was governed by the tyrant burets Teno, who, according 
to the imperial annals, sent some thousands of soldiers to destroy 
a rival. Of course, it could not be said of such a people that 
" they had neither arms nor troops." 

The northern and southern prisons, described by Jloei Shin, 
find no confirmation in the Japanese annals. There is no evi- 
dence that tha Japanese reared stags instead of cattle ; they were 
not without iron, nor did they esteem gold and silver of no ac- 
count. Finally, as Klaproth himself acknowledges, the Buddhist 
religion was not introduced into Japan till the year 552, when it 
was brought in from Corea ; consequently, the priest Hoei Shin 
could not have spoken of it as the religion of the country in the 
year 500. 

But another supposition still remains. The Han were a peo- 
ple, rather than a country : Ta-han, the Great Han. The Ha7is 
were among the oldest of the Chinese races ; they occupied the 
northern part of the empire, overspread Corea, and ultimately 
became masters of Japan. The Japanese historians trace back 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 165 

their line of emperors to Ku-Tiung, king of Chou^ whose great- 
grandson, Wu-wang, became emperor of China, 1122 b. c. The 
kings of Chou were of the Han race. Gutzlaff says " the state of 
Han [424 to 230 b. c] was ruled by a line of kings who traced 
their descent from the founders of the Chou dynasty." (" Chin. 
Hist.," p. 202.) Klaproth gives us the testimony of Chinese 
writers that Wu T^ai-pe, elder son of Ku-kung, prince of Chou, 
founded the kingdom of Wu, where his descendants reigned 659 
years. Being conquered and driven out by the king of Yue, 
they sailed for Japan, and became the founders of that empire : 
" The children, the grandchildren, and the relatives of the last 
kihg of Wiif put to sea, and became the Wo or Japanese." In 
the third century of our era, these Han rulers of Japan took 
possession of Corea, which, after the fall of the Han dynasty in 
China, appears to have become the general rendezvous of the 
Han races. The country was known as that of the Sa7i-han, or 
San-kan, the "Three Hans^"* namely, the Ma-han, composed of 
fifty-four tribes, the Shin-han, twelve tribes, and the Pian-han, 
also twelve tribes. It is highly probable that Hoei Shin, in 
speaking of the country of the Great Han, meant Japan, in dis- 
tinction from Corea, the common residence of the three principal 
Han families. 

It would seem, from the descriptions by other writers, of coast- 
wise and overland journeys to the Great Han, that this term was 
also used for a more northerly region, either the northern part of 
Jaj)an (including Saghalien) or a portion of the continent. With 
these accounts the narrative of Hoei Shiii has no necessary con- 
nection. It is a strong argument in favour of a Southern Ta-han 
as a point of departure for America, that it would make the 
deviation from an eastern course far less than by the northern 
route. 

We must wait for a more perfect knowledge of the former 
flora and fauna of America before we can identify, with any cer- 
tainty, the plants and animals mentioned by Hoei Shin. It has 
been suggested that the maguey, or Mexican aloe, is the fu-sang; 
but we think a more substantial tree is indicated. In many re- 
spects the description would agree better with some tree of the 
bread-fruit family, which includes the artocarpus, morus or mul- 
berry, maclura, and fig. Of the bread-fruit no less than fifty 
varieties are enumerated as indigenous to the South Sea Islands, 



166 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and there is no reason why they should not have been abundant 
in the tropical regions of the American coast.* Williams, in his 
" Narrative of Missionary Enterprises," gives this description of 
the most common variety : 

" Among all the trees that adorn the islands of the Pacific, 
the bread-fruit deserves the pre-eminence for its beauty and value. 
It frequently grows fifty or sixty feet high, and has a trunk be- 
tween two and three feet in diameter. The leaves are broad and 
sinuated, something similar in form to those of the fig-tree. 
They are frequently eighteen inches in length, and of a dark- 
green colour, with a glossy surface resembling that of the richest 
evergreens. The fruit is oval, about six inches in diameter, and 
of a light pea-green." Ellis adds that "it subsequently changes 
to brown, and when fully ripe assumes a rich yellow tinge." 

Williams continues : " The value of this wonderful tree ex- 
ceeds its beauty. It is everything to the natives — their house, 
their food, their clothing. The trunk furnishes one of the best 
kinds of timber they possess. It is the colour of mahogany, ex- 
ceedingly durable, and is used by the natives in building their 
canoes and houses, and in the manufacture of the few articles of 
furniture they formerly possessed. From the bark of the 
branches they fabricate their clothing ; and, when the tree is 
punctured, there exudes from it a mucilaginous fluid, resembling 
thick cream, which hardens by exj^osure to the sun, and, when 
boiled, answers all the purposes of English pitch. The fruit is, 
to the South Sea Islander, the staff of life. It bears two crops 
every season. Besides this, there are several varieties which 
ripen at different pei-iods, so that the natives have a supply 
of this palatable and nutritious food during the greater part of 
the year." 

Our conclusion is this : That the narrative of Iloei Shin is en- 
titled to full credence ; that before the Anglo-Saxons invaded 
England ; before France became a nation ; a hundred years be- 
fore the birth of Mohammed, and more than fourteen hundred 

* The bread-fruit tree, like its congener, the jack-tree of India, requires care 
for its preservation, and its non-cultivation in a particular country at the present 
time does not prove its non-existence a thousand years ago. Mr. Ellis (" Polynesian 
Researches," chap, ii.) says the tree " is propagated by slips from the root" ; but 
he expresses his fear that it will in a few years become scarce, as the indolent na- 
tives " are generally adverse to the planting of bread-fruit trees." 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 167 

years before the daring Columbus ventured upon unknown waters 
in search of a new world, the Orientals were passing and repassing 
the broad Pacific, from China to the American coast, either by 
the shore line, where the current would aid in carrying them 
around and down the Mexican coast, or by a direct route over 
calmer seas, passing the Sandwich Islands and falling into the 
Mexican current a little north of Peru ; that, previous to the 
year 500, there was an empire on this continent which must 
have rivaled China in civilization, laws, and good government ; 
that its ruler was so powerful as to maintain his authority with- 
out the use of armies ; that the people had a wu-itten language ; 
that they used, in their reckoning of time, the Chinese cycle of 
sixty years ; that they had domestic animals, and used wheel 
carriages ; that among the chief productions of the country was 
a tree resembling or identical with the bread-fruit tree ; that the 
Buddhist religion had been recently introduced, but had not 
exterminated the more ancient idolatry, which consisted in the 
^ worship of images representing spirits. These general facts we 
consider established on as good authoi-ity as we could ask for — 
that of a Buddhist priest, probably himself one of the mission- 
aries to whom reference is made. 

BemarJcs of the Abbe JBrasseur de Bourbourcj?^ 

Without undertaking to defend here the argument of M. de 
Guignes regarding Fii-sang, recently revived by M, Gustave 
d'Eichthal by the article in which he ascribed the American 
civilization to a Buddhist origin, an argument attacked by Klap- 
roth and more lately by M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, we will, 
since we are upon known ground, digress sufficiently to call at- 
tention to some errors in the article of the latter in the " Annee 
Geographique." We shall not seek to prove that either the/w- 
aang tree or any very similar tree existed in America ; but it is 
certain that most of the books of the natives that have been pre- 
served to our times, without counting those of the collection of M. 
Aubin, are made from the fibers of the bark of a tree from which 
the Americans made a true paper. (See Gomara, " Conquista de 
Mexico," t. i, p. 424 ; Landa, " Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan," 
p. 44 ; Humboldt, " Vues des Cordill^res," t. ii, pp. 269, 304.) Such 
are, among others, the "Dresden Manuscript," the manuscript 
of the Imperial Library, called " Mexican.IVIanuscript, No. 2," the 



168 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

"Codex Troano," etc., whicli, it may be observed, in passing, are 
written in alphabetical characters. M. Vivien de Saint-Martin 
in his article says that writing, properly so called, or alphabetical 
writing, does not exist in America ; nevertheless, it was well known 
in 1865 that alphabetical writing really existed, and nothing more 
is necessary to prove this than the work of Landa, which the 
scholarly geographer cites, two pages farther on, which, if not 
sufficient to satisfy him of its existence, should at least have de- 
terred him from stating the contrary in a manner so absolute. 

He adds that " it has never been stated that the miserable 
savages of the northwest coast had a method of writing or made 
paper." There may, however, have been other nations upon these 
coasts at an earlier date who were in possession of these two arts ; 
for it is known, says M. von Humboldt ("Vues des Cordill^res," 
t. ii, p. 96), that in the last century, " among the inhabitants of 
Nutka, the Mexican month of twenty days was found in use," 
which conveys the idea of a state of civilization passably ad- 
vanced. The remains of gigantic edifices have also been found , 
from time to time in these quarters, certainly the works of a 
people more advanced in civilization than the miserable savages 
in question. 

In spite of Klaproth's skillful refutation of the hypothesis 
of de Guignes, it has been reproduced several times, says Alex- 
ander von Humboldt, by the pens of a number of estimable 
scholars, who think that they have found in the Vinland of 
Asiatic explorers more than one characteristic trait of America. 

It is now unquestionably established, moreover, from the ac- 
counts of the first Spanish explorers, which have been studied 
upon the spot by the Americans of our days, that the countries 
situated in the center of the American Continent, and upon its 
western coasts, from the banks of the Rio Gila to the copper 
mines of Lake Superior, were formerly inhabited by tribes which 
were scarcely inferior in civilization to those of Mexico proper. 
They existed only in a state of decadence at the time of the 
Spanish conquest, and the remains of this civilization are found 
even now in the villages of houses of several stories in New 
Mexico. 

As to Chinese or Japanese voyages to the northwestern 
coasts : from time to time their traces have been thought to be 
found in the ports of California (Bradford, " American Antiq- 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 169 

uities," p. 233) ; and Gomara states that, at the time of the expe- 
ditions of Cortez and Alarcon in these regions, "they heard of 
boats which had pelicans of gold and silver at the prow, which 
were loaded with merchandise, and which they thought to come 
from Cathay and China, because the sailors of these boats caused 
it to be understood by signs that their voyage had taken thirty 
days." 

There also exists a well-known tradition, among the inhabit- 
ants of the Pacific coast of North America, that men of 'distant 
nations came formerly from beyond the sea to trade at the prin- 
cipal ports of the coast (Bustamante, " Supplement to Book III of 
the Work of Sahagun "). It is also known that the northern tribes 
were much more peaceable than the Mexicans, and that in their 
country there exist "plains covered with trees, among which 
there are vines, mulberries, and rose-bushes." (See, in the collec- 
tion of Ternaux-Compans, Castaneda's "Relation du Voyage 
de Cibola en 1540," p. 126.) 

They also possessed great numbers of dogs, which carried 
their effects, and perhaps even the bison may have been used 
as a draught animal and beast of burden ; and it is certain, at 
least, that the chiefs of the country had quite large herds of tame 
deer and domestic bisons (see letter written by the Adelantado 
Soto, etc., in the " Collection of Narrations regarding Florida," 
edited by Ternaux-Compans, p. 47, and in the "Relation of 
Biedma," p. 101) ; and, according to the accounts of various 
authors, it is probable that they were used much as are our 
domestic animals. 

Gomara, in his "Hist. Gen. de las Indias," in several places 
mentions the accounts of travelers of his days, and those of the 
conquerors, who speak of numerous herds of domestic bisons ex- 
isting among the northern tribes, and which furnished them with 
clothing, food, and drink. Humboldt and Prescott remark that 
the drink must have been their blood, for the natives of these 
countries appear to have this, in common with those of China 
and Cochin-China, that they make no use of milk (" Tableau de 
la Nature," trad. Galuski, Paris, 1863, p. 213). It is known 
that other Indians in the northern part of the United States, 
and in Canada, used certain large deers as draught animals for 
their sledges, in the same way that, at the present day, elks are 
used by the Indians of the country north of Canada. 



170 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

M. de Saint-Martin says that, before the arrival of the Span- 
iards, neither draught animals nor beasts of burden were known 
in America. What can he call the vicunas and llamas of 
Peru, which are used as beasts of burden exactly as camels are 
in Asia ? (See Cie9a de Leon, " Cronica del Peru," cap. ex and cxi ; 
and as for North America, consult Gomara, who was the chap- 
lain of Cortez.) "There are also great dogs, capable of fighting 
with a bull, and which carry two arrobas weight (fifty pounds) 
upon a'sort of saddle when they go to the chase." (" Hist, de 
las Indias," p. 289 ; see also Castenada, " Relation de Cibola," 
p. 190.) 

In any case, before pronouncing so positively as to what is 
known or not known regarding the Americans, it seems to us 
to be prudent to wait ; for every day, it may be said, throws 
some new light upon the diverse ancient civilizations of the 
continent discovered by Columbus. The " Old Stories Set 
Afloat " are not always as improbable as may be thought, and 
M. Gustave d'Eichthal may be right in his reply to the scholarly 
editor of the " Annee Geographique," that " old stories are good 
things to revive when they are true old stories." . . . 

*^ The Abbe de Bourboui'g says, in his introduction to the 
" Popol-Vuh " : " It has been known to scholars for nearly a cen- 
tury that the Chinese were acquainted with the American Con- 
tinent in the fifth century of our era. . . . Readers, who may 
desire to make comparisons between the Japanese description of 
Fa-sang and some country in America, will find astonishing 
analogies in the countries described by Castaneda and Fra Mar- 
cos de Niza in the province of Cibola." ... '' Speaking of the 
Mexican religion, he is constrained to say : " Asia appears to 
have been the cradle of this religion, and of the social institu- 
tions which it consecrated." 

The hooJc, entitled '^ Fusanff ; or, the Discovery of America 
by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth Century,'''' by Charles 
G, Leland {12mo, London^ 1875). 

This work opens with a memoir of Carl Friedrich Neumann. 
This is followed by a translation of Professor Neumann's argu- 
ment regarding Fa-sang, which is succeeded by a chapter of 
comments and suggestions by Mr, Leland. Then follows a chap- 
ter regarding the navigation of the North Pacific, and embody- 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 171 

ing a letter from Colonel Barclay Kennon, setting forth the 
ease with which a voyage may be made from Asia to America, 
by way of the Aleutian Islands, even in an open canoe, and 
calling attention to the frequency with which this voyage is 
made by the natives of those regions. Next come a chapter of 
remarks upon Colonel Kennon's letter and a chapter detailing 
the venturesome travels of other Buddhist priests. The affinities 
of Asiatic and American languages are next considered, the pos- 
sible connection of the Mound-builders with the Mexicans is 
then discussed, and attention is called to the wide distribution 
of images of Buddha. The arguments of de Guignes, Klaproth, 
and d'Eichthal are next reviewed. Then follow two letters from 
Theos. Simson and E. Bretschneider respectively, with comments 
by Mr. Leland. An appendix, describing the Ainos, and discus- 
sing the resemblance between the American Indians and the 
tribes of Northeastern Asia, closes the work. 

It should be remarked that this book is an amplification of 
an article written by Mr. Leland, which appeared in the " Gen- 
tleman's Magazine " many years before, and Professor Williams 
is, therefore, wrong in stating that Mr. Bancroft's digest of the 
arguments upon the subject preceded Mr. Leland's argument. 

As the article from w^hich the following extracts are taken 
was credited by the " Chinese Recorder " (from which it is here 
copied) to the " Gentleman's Magazine," it is probably Mr. Le- 
land's early argument. 

Who discovered America? Evidence that the JVeic World teas 
knoio?i to the Chinese fourteen hundred years ago. '"^ 

. . . There are among the Chinese records, not merely vague 
references to a country to the west of the Atlantic, but there is 
also a circumstantial account of its discovery by the Chinese 
long before Columbus was bom. 

A competent authority on such matters, J. Hanlay, the Chi- 
nese interpreter at San Francisco, has lately written an essay on 
this subject, from which we gather the following startling state- 
ments, drawn from Chinese historians and geographers. 

Fourteen hundred years ago, even, America had been discov- 
ered by the Chinese, and described by them. They stated that 
land to be about twenty thousand Chinese miles distant from 
China. About five hundred years after the birth of Christ, 



1Y2 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Buddhist priests visited there, and brought back the news that 
they had met with Buddhist idols and religious writings in the 
country. Their descriptions, in many respects, resemble those 
of the Spaniards a thousand years later. They called the coun- 
try " Fu-sang,'''' after a tree that grew there, whose leaves re- 
semble those of the bamboo, of whose bark the natives made 
cloths and paper, and whose fruit they ate. These particulars 
correspond exactly and remarkably with those given by the 
American historian, Prescott, about the maguey-tree in Mexico. 
He states that the Aztecs prepared a pulp for paper-making out 
of the bark of this tree. Then, even its leaves were used for 
thatching ; its fibers for making ropes ; its roots yielded a 
nourishing food ; and its sap, by means of fermentation, was 
made into an intoxicating drink. The accounts given by the 
Chinese and Spaniards, although a thousand years apart, agree 
in stating that the natives did not possess any iron, but only 
copper ; that they made all their tools for working in stone and 
metals out of a mixture of copper and tin ; and that they, in 
comparison with the nations of Europe and Asia, thought but 
little of the worth of silver and gold. The religious customs and 
forms of worship presented the same characteristics to the Chi- 
nese fourteen hundred years ago as to the Spaniards four hun- 
dred years ago. 

There is, moreover, a remarkable resemblance between the 
religion of the Aztecs and the Buddhism of the Chinese, as well 
as between the manners and customs of the Aztecs and those of 
the people of China. There is also a great similarity between 
the features of the Indian tribes of Middle and South America 
and those of the Chinese, and, as Hanlay, the Chinese interjireter 
of whom we spoke above, states, between the accent and most of 
the monosyllabic words of the Chinese and Indian languages. 

The writer gives a list of words which point to a close 
relationship, and infers therefrom that there must have been 
emigration from China to the continent at a most early period, 
as the official accounts of the Buddhist priests fourteen hundred 
years ago notice these things as existing even at that time. Per- 
haps now, old records may be recovered in China, which may 
furnish full particulars of this question. 

It is, at any rate, remarkable, and confirmative of the idea of 
emigration from China to America at some remote period, that 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 1Y3 

at the time of the discovery of America by the Spaniards, the 
Indian tribes on the coast of the Pacific, opposite to China, for 
the most part enjoyed a state of culture of ancient growth, while 
the inhabitants of the Atlantic shore were found by the Euro- 
peans in a state of original barbarism. . , . 

Letter of Theos. Simson.-^^'^ 

" ' Buddhist Priests in America.' Under this heading,"" a quer- 
ist in the last number of ' Notes and Queries ' submits to inquiry 
a statement of Professor Carl Neumann, of Munich, respecting 
the supposed entry of Buddhist priests into the American Con- 
tinent some thirteen hundred years ago, and their passage into 
the land of the Aztecs, which they called Fu-sang, * after the 
Chinese name of the American aloe.' 

*' Now, in the first place, this statement, if true, inferentially 
proves much more than it asserts ; the Mexican aloe is a native 
of Mexico only, and it is manifest, therefore, that if these sup- 
posed Chinese travelers named the country after the Chinese 
name of the Mexican aloe, that plant must have been well known 
to them before the period of their visit to its native country ; 
hence, we are carried further back, to a time when the Mexican 
aloe must have been known in China, and we must allow a con- 
siderable period for it to have become so well known as to sug- 
gest to the travelers a name for a newly discovered — or, as it 
must needs have been in this view, a rediscovered — country. This 
consideration takes us back into the question of the original 
peopling of the American Continent, to the age of stone or 
bronze, perhaps, which is beyond the intended scope of the 
querist's quotation. 

"At the period 'when the land of Fu-sang is first mentioned 
by historians,' China, exclusive of the neighbouring 'barbarous 
tribes,' over whom she held sway, was not so extensive as she is 
at present, but comprised only what we now call the Northern 
and Central Provinces. Does the Mexican aloe grow in that 
part of the country at all ? I am inclined to think not, though 
I can not speak positively upon the point. In Canton it is said 
by the Chinese to have been introduced from the Philippine Isl- 
ands, and is called Spanish (or Philippine) hemp, its fibers being 
sometimes employed in the manufacture of mosquito-nets. 

"But t^ie fu-sang (or, more correcWj, the fu-sang ^ree), as 



174 AX INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

described in Chinese botanical works, appears to be a malvaceous 
plant ; at any rate, whatever it may be, it certainly is not the 
Mexican aloe, or anything similar to it. 

" The land of Fu-sang is described by Chinese authors as be- 
ing in the Eastern Sea, in the place where the sun rises. Consid- 
ering the geographical limits of China at the time referred to 
(some thirteen hundred years ago), surely we need not look far- 
ther than Japan for a very probable identification of the Fu-sang 
country according with this description, which indeed appears to 
be embodied in the more modern name Jih-pen-7ciooh, ' Japan,' 
which is translatable as the ' Country of the Rising Sun.' It is 
a matter of fact, too, that Buddhism was introduced into that 
country some thirteen hundred years ago ; and this by no means 
extraordinary event is a very much more probable version of 
the incident refei'red to than the marvelous story given by Pro- 
fessor Neumann." 

" Fa-sang ; or, TFAo Discovered AnxericcC — hy E. Bretschnei- 

der, 31. B. "* 

" In the May number of the * Chinese Recorder ' there is an 
article, reproduced from the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' in which 
it is sought to be proved that the Chinese had discovered Ameri- 
ca as early as 500 a. d. . . . I have not read the dissertations of 
M. Paravey. ... I am also equally unacquainted with the article 
of Mr. Neumann ... I believe, however, that the Chinese no- 
tices about Fu-sang are all derived from one and the same source, 
and each and all rest upon the statements of a lying Buddhist 
priest, ITui-shen, who asserts that he was in Fu-sang. . . . 

"In later times the Chinese poets, who seem to be gifted 
with a much livelier imagination than some of our savants, have 
developed and richly embellished the reports with regard to the 
land of Fu-sang, and have made out of it a complete land of fa- 
bles, where mulberry-trees grow to a height of several thousand 
feet, and where silk-worms are found more than six feet in 
length. The statements about Fu-sang given by M, Leon de 
Rosny, in his 'Varietes Orientales,' from a Japanese Encyclo- 
ptedia, are probably borrowed from the Chinese. I have not, 
however, read M. Rosny's work. (Cf. 'Notes and Queries,' vol. 
iv, p. 19.) 

" In order to place the credibility of the Buddhist priest Ilui- 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 175 

shen in the proper light, I will yet mention what he further re- 
lates of his journeys. He asserts, namely {loco citato), that there 
is a kingdom, 1,000 li east of Fu-sanfj, in which there are no men, 
but only women, whose bodies are completely covered with hair. 
When they wish to become pregnant, they bathe themselves in 
a certain river. The women have no mammas, but tufts of hair 
on the neck, by means of which they suckle their children. 

" Upon these vague and incredible traditions of a Buddhist 
monk, several European savants have based the hypothesis that 
the Chinese had discovered America 1,300 years ago. Neverthe- 
less, it appears to me that these Sinologues have not succeeded 
in robbing Columbus of the honour of having discovered Amer- 
ica. They might have spared themselves the writing of such 
learned treatises on this subject. It appears to me that the ver- 
dict passed upon the value of the information of the Buddhist 
monk Hui-sMn by Father Hyacinth is the most correct. This 
well-known Sinologue adds the following words merely, after the 
translation of the article ' Fu-sang^ out of the * History of the 
Southern Dynasties ' : ' Hiii-sMn appears to have been a consum- 
mate humbug.' (Cf. ' The People of Central Asia,' by F. Hya- 
cinth.) 

" I cannot, indeed, understand what ground we have for be- 
lieving that Fu-sang is America. We can not lay great stress 
upon the asserted distance, for every one knows how liberal the 
Chinese are with numbers. By tamed stags we can, at all events, 
only imderstand reindeer. But these are found as frequently in 
Asia as in America. Mention is also made of horses in Fu-sang. 
This does not at all agree with America, for it is well known that 
horses were first brought to America in the sixteenth century. 
Neumann appears to base his hypothesis on the assumption that 
the tree fu-sang is synonymous with the Mexican aloe. Mr. 
Sampson has already refuted this error. ('Notes and Queries,' 
vol. iii, p. 78.) 

"According to the descriptions and drawings of the ircQ fu- 
sang, given by the Chinese, there is no doubt that it is a malvacea. 
In Pekin, the Hibiscus rosa Sinensis is designated by this name, 
while Hihiscics Syriacus is here called mu-Jcm. These names seem 
to hold good for the whole of China. The description which 
is given in the Pun-tsdo-Jcang-mu of both plants (xxxvi, pp. 64 and 
65) admits of no doubt that by the tree fu-sang, chu-Tcin, chi-Icin, 



176 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ji-Jd, is to be understood Sibiscus rosa jSmensis. It is also 
mentioned that this tree has a likeness to the mu-Jcin {Hibiscus 
Syriacus). Its leaves resemble the mulberry-tree. Very good 
drawings of both kinds of hibiscus are found in the CM-iou-ming- 
shi-tu-Jc'ao (xxxv, pp. 58 and 34). The Buddhist priest Hui-shm 
compares the tree fu-sang with the tree thing. Under this 
name the Chinese denote different large-leaved trees. In the 
Chi-iou-ming-shi-tu-h'' ao (xxx, p. 46), the tree ^'t<n^ is represented 
with broadly ovate, cordate, entire, great leaves, and with great 
ovoid, acuminate fruits. Hoffman and Schultes (' Noms Indi- 
genes des Plantes du Japon et de la Chine ') have set down the 
tree fung as Paulownia imperialis. This agrees quite well with 
the Chinese drawing. 

" The tree fung must not be confounded with the yu-fung 
tree (synonyma, ying-tsil-fung, jen-fung), from whose fruit is 
furnished the well-known and very poisonous oil thing-yu, which 
the Chinese employ in varnish and in painting. It should be the 
Dryanda cor data ; according to others, Elmococca verucosa. I 
have not seen the tree, but it is known to occur very abundantly 
in Central China, and especially on the Yang-tse-Jclang. There 
is a Chinese description in the Pun-fsao (xxxv, p. 26), and a draw- 
ing of it in the Chi-tou-ming-shi-tu-k''ao (xxxv, p. 26). 

" There is also a tree which the Chinese call lou-fung (syn- 
onyme, chen). This tree has already been mentioned by Du 
Halde (' Description de I'Empire Chinois ') as a curiosity, in which 
tlie seeds are found on the edges of the leaves. This phenomenon 
is also described in the drawings of the Chi-iou-yning-shi-tu-Jc'ao 
(xxxv, p. 56). Compare, further, the description in thePim-fsao 
(xxxv, p. 25). It is the Stercidia plantanifolia, a beautiful tree 
with large leaves, lobed so as to resemble a hand, which is culti- 
vated in the Buddhist temples near Pekin. The Chinese are 
quite right in what they relate about the seeds. The seed-folli- 
cles burst, and acquire the form of coriaceous leaves, bearing 
the seeds upon their margin. 

"The leaves of all the trees just now mentioned allow them- 
selves to be compared, as is done by the Chinese, with those of the 
hibiscus, or other plants of the malvaceous family, but have not 
the slightest resemblance with the Mexican aloe, or maguey-tree 
{Agave Americana), which has massive, spiny-toothed, fleshy 
leaves. Mr. Ilanlay ('Chinese Recorder,' vol. ii, p. 345), of San 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 177 

Francisco, can not, therefore, succeed in proving that the Bud- 
dhist priest Hui-sMn understood by fu-sang the Mexican aloe. 

" Finally, I have to mention a tree which, as regards its ap- 
pearance and usefulness, corresponds pretty much with the de- 
scription given by Hid-shtn of the fu-sang tree. I am speaking 
of the useful tree Broussonetia papyrifera^ which grows wild 
in the temperate parts of Asia,* especially in China, Japan, Corea, 
Mantchooria, etc., and is, besides, found on the islands of the 
Pacific ; while, as far as I know, it does not occur in America. 
The leaves of this tree are remarkable for their varying very 
much in shape. The same tree produces at once very large and 
quite small leaves. They are sometimes entire, sometimes many- 
lobed. The fruit is round, of a deep scarlet colour, and pulpy. 
It is a well-known fact that, in the parts where the tree grows, 
its bark is used for the making of paper and the manufacturing 
of clothing material. From ancient times it has been known to 
the Chinese under the name cA'w (synonyma. Icon, Jcou-sang, 
kou-shu : cf . Pun-t sao-hang-mii, xxxvi, p. 10). An excellent en- 
graving of the tree is found in the Chi-wu-ming-shi-tu-k'' ao 
(xxxiii, p. 57). Hui-shen, in his botanical diagnosis, perhaps 
made a mistake icith regard to the fu-sang tree, and confounded 
hroussonetia with hibiscus. 

"Just as little as the Mexican aloe, does the non-existence of 
iron in the country Fu-sang prove that America is to be under- 
stood, for there were many countries in ancient times which 
possessed copper, but where the art of woi'king iron was un- 
known. The Chinese report also that the natives of the Loo- 
choo Islands did not possess iron, but only copper. 

"Mr. Hanlay (/. c.) appears to have received the discovery 
of America by the Chinese with the greatest enthusiasm. Per- 
haps I have furnished him, by means of the above notice about 
* the Kingdom of Women,' lohich Sui-shtn visited, a new proof 
for his view of the case. Fh-sang lies, according to Hui-shen, 
directly east from China, more than 20,000 li, thus about the 
situation of San Francisco at the present day. The celebrated 
"Women's Kingdom lies 1,000 li farther toward the east, thus 
about the country of Salt Lake City, where, at the present day, 
the Mormons are, which, if not a women's country, is nevertheless 

* Saglialien, where Mr. Bretschneider would put Fu-sang, can hardly be called 
temperate. — Note by C. G. Leland. 
12 



178 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

a country of many women, and where — to the disgrace of the 
United States — prostitution is carried on under the mask of the 
Christian religion. 

"I do not agree with Mr. Sampson ('Notes and Queries,' 
vol. iii, p. 79) in supposing that Fu-scmg must be identified with 
Japan — Tf;, Ji-peuy * the Land where the Sun rises '; for Jajian 
has been well known to the Chinese since several centuries before 
our era, under another name. I avail myself of this opportunity 
to add a few words about the earliest accounts which the Chinese 
have of Japan. This country was primitively known to them 
under the name Wo, which occurs for the first time in chapter 
cxv of the 'History of the Posterior Han,^ (a. d. 25-221), I 
can not afford to give here a translation of the whole article, and 
shall, therefore, only touch upon some of the most important 
points. The kingdom Wo, it is said, is situated on a group of 
islands in the Great Sea, southeast of Han (in the southwestern 
part of Corea), and is composed of about a hundred principali- 
ties. Since the conquest of Ghao-sien (Corea) by the Emperor 
Wu-ti, 108 B. c, about thirty of these principalities entered into 
relations with China. The most powerful of the rulers has his 
capital in Ye-ma-fai. It is mentioned that neither tigers and 
leopards, nor oxen, horses, sheep, and magpies exist. As far as I 
know, this last remark is not true at present, at least as far as 
horses and oxen are concerned ; it is true, however, that sheep 
can not thrive in Japan, and the attempts of the Europeans to 
acclimatize them have been, until now, unsuccessful. 

" In the reign of Kuang-wu, a. d. 25-58, envoys came from 
the Wo-nu with presents to the Chinese court. They stated that 
their country was the southernmost of the kingdom. . . . 

" A NU-wang-Jcuo, a ' Country of Women,' is spoken of in the 
southern part of Japan. This statement is confirmed by the 
Japanese annals. (Cf. Klaproth, 'Annales des Empereurs du 
Japon,' p. 13.) The Japanese call this country Atsowma. 

"The land Ta-han must have been a province in Siberia. 
Fii-sang is said to lie to the east of Ta-han. Supposing, then, 
that a country, Fu-sang, really existed, and was not an invention 
of a Buddhist monk, it does not necessarily follow that it is to 
be sought on the other side of the ocean. Let me here observe 
that this monk mentions in no place in his account having passed 
over a great sea. Klaproth, in assuming that Fu-sang is meant 



SHORTER ESSAYS. I79 

for the island of Saghalien, is, I believe, more near to the truth 
than the other Sinologues. 

"In 'Notes and Queries' (vol. iv, p. 19) there is a passage, 
cited out of the ^ Liang-ssiX-kung-ki^ that the kingdom of Fu- 
sang had sent envoys to China. This would, of course, prove 
that the so-called country of Fu-sang had political intercourse 
with China; but it makes it more unlikely that America was here 
meant. We will, therefore, in the mean time, still consider Fu- 
sang as a terra incognita nee non duhia, and bestow upon Mr. 
Burlingame the double honour of having been the first American 
embassador at the Chinese court, and the first Chinese embas- 
sador in America. 

" The contradictory fancies about China that originate in the 
brains of European literati are truly astonishing. Some main- 
tain that the Chinese discovered America 1,300 years ago ; while 
a well-known Frenchman, Count Gobineau, some years ago as- 
serted that the Chinese had immigrated from America. In his 
' Essay upon the Inequality of Human Races,' vol. ii, p. 242, 
Count Gobineau says : ' Whence came the yellow nations ? 
From the great Continent of America. This is the answer both 
of physiology and philology.' 

" All these unfounded hypotheses have much the same value 
as the supposed discovery of America by the Chinese." 

This letter, and that of Mr. Simson, are copied, by permission, 
from the work of Mr. Charles G. Leland, entitled, " Fusang ; or, 
the Discovery of America." Mr. Leland's criticism is short, but 
sharp : 

1721 «j^ iji-igf^ j)j._ Bretschneider asserts that there was no 
Fu-sang— it being all the invention of a lying priest ; but that it 
was in Siberia. There was never any such place ; but still Mr. 
Simson is wrong in placing it in Japan, and Klaproth is right in 
declaring it was at Saghalien. There was no fu-sang tree either ; 
but the monk who saw it meant the Jcou-sang, describing more 
accurately, however, a Mexican plant. Klaproth refuted de Guig- 
nes, and exposed his errors by proving that Fu-sang was also in 
Japan ; only, in Dr. Bretschneider's opinion, it was elsewhere. 
And it is certainly curious that the writers who utterly discredit 
the very existence of Fu-sang, and all that is said of it, have each 
a theory as to where it really was." 



180 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Extract from a letter written by Phre Gauhil to 31. de 
VIsle;''' dated Pehin, , August 28th, 1752: 

" The translation made by M. de Guignes from the Wen-hian- 
t^ung-k'ao concerning the nations Wen-shin, Ta-han, etc., situ- 
ated a great distance to the northeast of Japan, may have led 
you to believe that in the times of the Liang dynasty (or even 
more than three hundred years earlier) the Chinese were ac- 
quainted with America. 

" All these texts prove nothing, however, when they are care- 
fully examined, and corrected by the clearer writings of earlier 
and more trustworthy authors. 

" From similar vague accounts, and from the distances indi- 
cated by several authors, it might be concluded that at the be- 
ginning of the Christian era, or even earlier, the Chinese were 
acquainted with Europe, as, for instance, Italy, France, etc. 
Now, this is certainly not the case. All these texts should be 
carefully examined ; and the thing is not at all difficult. Before 
the days of M. de Guignes, a number of missionaries had sent 
to Europe translations of texts similar to those of his ; but there 
were numerous mistakes in the texts, and there was especially 
shown in them a lack of critical judgment, which should have 
been sufficient to prevent the occurrence of any misunderstand- 
ing based upon them. 

" I can not admit your idea that America, or at least North 
America along the coast of California, may have been peopled by 
the tribes of Northeastern Chinese Tartary. 

" The ancient and modern Chinese authorities agree in the 
following statements : 

"First, that under the dynasty Cheu, before the Christian 
era, Japan was peopled by the Southern Chinese ; and, 

"Second, that the last emperor of the Hia dynasty, after 
having been dethroned by Ching-tang, his son, fled to Tartary 
with a great number of Chinese, and founded the different Tar- 
tarian powers to the north and northeast of China. 

" It is certain that at the time that the Russians concealed 
their establishments in Kamtchatka, the court of Pekin had a 
knowledge of that country; and it also seems certain that long 
before the present dynasty the Chinese had known Jesso, and, in 
general, the countries to the northeast, including Kamtchatka, 
but not fully or in detail." 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 181 

Humboldt makes the following observation in regard to this 
letter : '''' 

"According to the learned researches of Father Gaubil (found 
in an astronomical MS. of the Jesuits, preserved in the * Bureau 
des Longitudes ' at Paris), it appears doubtful whether the Chi- 
nese ever visited the western coast of America a thousand years 
before that period (the eighteenth century), as was advanced by 
M. de Guignes, the justly celebrated historian." 

" Concerning Fa-sang " — -from the " Magazine of American 
History '' for April, 1883."^' 

The question, " Where was Mi-sang ? " has long excited 
interest, and some have supposed that Fu-sang was the west- 
ern coast of America, which had been discovered by the Japan- 
ese. The literature of the subject is extensive, but unsatis- 
factory in the extreme. An almost unknown book, or rather 
essay, on Fu-sang was put out somewhat privately, a few years 
ago, by the Rev. William Brown, D. D., who is now in Japan 
translating the Bible into the Japanese tongue. One of the 
later efforts in connection with the subject is Leland's " Fu- 
sang ; or, the Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests 
in the Fifth Century," London, Triibner & Co., 1875. About 
all that concerns the bibliography of Fi-sang may be traced 
in this work. We have frequently been treated to pretended 
extracts from the chronicles containing the voyage to ^^Ft- 
sang,''^ wherever it may have been ; but, having a desire to learn 
the exact facts from a known American scholar, we addressed 
a note to the Rt. Rev. Channing M. Williams, Bishop of Japan, 
asking for information, who, in reply, kindly wrote as follows : 

" It is only within a day or two that I have been able to 
procure the information that you wish. The Shan Hai King 
(' Mountain and Sea Classic ' — which the Japanese pronounce 
San Gai Fio) is a very old Chinese work, many of the ac- 
counts of which are entirely fabulous. It treats largely of drag- 
ons and fanciful beines of all sorts — men with ten heads or 
one eye, creatures with bodies of animals, birds, snakes, and in- 
sects, and heads of men, etc. 

" I have, however, gotten one of the best scholars I know to 
examine the work ; and he has found three places in which refer- 
ence is made to the fa-sang (Jap., fu-soo) tree. These I have 



182 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

translated quite literally, and herewith inclose. The Japanese 
think the reference is to their country, and one of the names 
which have been given to it is Fii-soo-koku. There is a Japanese 
work I have seen which speaks of the fu-soo {Chinese, fu-sang) 
tree in the island of ITi-shu, which was 9,700 feet in length, and 
dark, petrified wood is said to be now dug up where the tree is 
supposed to have stood. 

" The subject has, I see by the Shanghai papers, been brought 
before the North China branch of the Asiatic Society, and Dr. 
Macgowan promised to read a paper at the autumn meeting 
proving that the Chinese did not go to America. 

" Yours, very truly, 

" C. M. Williams. 

" Vol. 4. * To the south the water goes 500 li (three Chinese 
It make a mile), the flowing sand 300 li (when you) reach the 
Wu-ko Mountain. To the south (you) see the Tii Sea. To the 
east (you) see they^-tree — also /ii-sang. No trees or grass (but) 
great wind (on) this mountain. 

" Vol. 9. ' North of this * is JSeh CM KwoTc (Black Teeth 
Country). The people of Heh Chi Kwoh are black, eat rice, use 
snakes, colour of which is red. Below there is a hot- water valley. 
Above the hot-water valley is the fu-sang (tree). The place 
where the ten suns bathe is to the north of the Heh Chi Kxook. 
(They) dwell in the water. Nine suns dwell in the lower 
branches. One sun dwells in the upper branches. 

" Vol. 14. ' Within the great uncultivated waste is a mount- 
ain called Nie Tao Kiun Li. On it is the fu-Xxee. Its height is 
300 li. The leaves are like mustard. There is a valley called 
Warm Spring Valley. Above this hot-water valley is the /w- 
tree. Just as one sun reaches (or arrives) another sun comes 
forth. All bear (lit,, cause to ride) a crow.' " 

" P. S. — Since writing the above, I have looked at Klaproth's 
introduction to ' Nipon o dai itsi ran,' and find that he has trans- 
lated a little freely one of the passages from the * 8han Hai 
King? The longer account of Fu-sang, which he gives in a 
note, is translated from another Chinese work, called *iVaw Szu ' 
(* Histoire du Midi ').» 

* A place which can not be identified. 



SHORTER ESSAYS. 183 

Extract from theEemarJcs of M.Leon deBosny upon a Note of 
31. Foucaux " Regarding the Relations which the Buddhists 
of Asia and the Inhabitants of America may have had with 
Each Other at the Commencement of our Era.'' "" 
« It is true that the passage from Asia to America, by the way 
of Behring's Straits, does not offer any difficulty ; that the fleets 
of the Esquimaux resort annually from Kamtchatka to the coun- 
try known until recently as Russian America. But it should be 
remarked that the tribes which go from the deserts of Asia to 
the deserts of America belong to a race that is purely boreal, 
which lives only in a certain circle, which neither in Asia nor in 
America extends its excursions to the south. Between China, 
Japan, and civilized Asia, on the one side, and Kamtchatka, on 
the other, there are immense distances to be passed. Great 
distances also separate the peninsula of Alaska from the warm 
regions in which were located the ancient civilized states of Cen- 
tral America. 

" How can we suppose that the Esquimaux, who always shun 
precisely these warm regions, can have served as the medium of 
connection between China and Mexico, Japan and Peru ? And 
what kind of people are these Esquimaux ? The most miserable 
of all races. Living in their inhospitable climate, in the lowest 
stage of civilization, they are contented with the poorest shelter, 
and with food that is gross and repugnant. Buried for whole 
months under the snow, and having only the most elementary 
rudiments of human culture, how can we suppose that these 
guzzlers of the oil of cetaceans can have been the creators of 
the high civilizations of Mexico, of Yucatan, and of Peru ; 
the authors of the colossal monuments of XJxmal or of Pa- 

lenque ? " * 

The accompanying newspaper article is given as having a 
possible connection (although I can not say that I have much 

* It 13 sufficient to say, in reply to M. de Rosny, that he is combating a man 
of straw. The theory is, not that the Esquimaux made the journey to Mexico, 
but that the Buddhist priests went from Asia to Mexico via the home of the Es- 
quimaux ; and that, as the most difficult part of the journey, the trip from Asia to 
America, by way of the Aleutian Islands, is not too difficult a voyage for the 
Esquimaux, the difficulty of the route can not be fairly claimed to be so great as 
to make the theory of such a voyage by the five Buddhist priests incredible or 
improbable. — E. P. Y. 



184 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

confidence in the truth of the story) with some visit in ancient 
times from Asia to America : 

(" The Weekly Colonist;' Victoria, B. C, Wednesday, October S5th, 18S2.) 

" The Oldest Inhabitants. — Were the Chinese here 3,000 

Years ago ? 

" What if antiquarians are able to prove that the Chinese were 
the earliest settlers of this continent ? That from the loins of the 
children of the ' Flowery Kingdom ' are descended the native 
tribes whom the white pioneers found possessing the land ? This 
theory has been often advanced. A few weeks ago a party of 
miners, who were running a drift in the bank on one of the 
creeks in the mining district of Cassiar, made a remarkable find. 
At a depth of several feet the shovel of one of the party raised 
about thirty of the brass coins which have passed current in China 
for many centuries. They were strung on what appeared to be 
an iron wire. This wire went to dust a few minutes after being 
exposed ; but the coins appeared as bright and new as when they 
first left the Celestial mint. They have been brought to Vic- 
toria, and submitted to the inspection of intelligent Chinamen, 
/ ') /, ri 17 ' "^ho unite in pronouncing them to be upward of three thousand 
years old. They bear a date about twelve hundred years ante- 
rior to the birth of Christ. And now the question arises, how 
the coins got to the place where they were found. The miners 
say there was no evidence of the ground having been disturbed 
by man before their picks and shovels penetrated it ; and the fact 
that the coins are little worn goes to show that they were not 
long in circulation before being hidden or lost at Cassiar. 
Whether they wei'e the property of Chinese mariners who were 
wrecked on the north coast, about three thousand years ago, and 
remained to people the continent ; or whether the Chinese min- 
ers who went to Cassiar seven or eight years ago deposited the 
collection where it was found, for the purpose of establishing 
for their nation a prior claim to the land — may never be known. 
But the native tribes of this coast resemble the Mongolian race 
so closely, that one would not be surprised at any time to hear 
of the discovery of yet more startling evidences of the presence 
of Chinese on this coast before the coming of the whites." 



CHAPTER XI. 

EEMA-RKS OF MM. VIVIEN DE SAINT-MARTIN AND LUCIEN ADAM. 

"An Old Story Set Afloat" — The route to Fu-sang — Identity of the Ainos with 
the Wen-shin — 7b-Aan near the mouths of the Amoor River — Route of Buddh- 
ist missionaries to the Amoor — Civilization of Buddhist origin — Pillars with 
Buddhist inscriptions — Necessity of accurate translation — Twenty thousand 
li signify only a very great distance — The fu-sanc/ tree — Warlike habits — 
Lack of draught animals — Civilization of Mexico — Difficulty of the voyage — 
Conclusion — Remarks of M. Adam — Chinese acquainted with America — Ease 
of the journey — Travels of Buddhist monks — Points characteristic of Ameri- 
can civilization — Ten-year cycle— The fic-sanff tree — The t^u7iff tree — The 
hibiscus — The Dryanda cordata — The maguey, or agave — Zoological objec- 
tions — Punishments — Slave children — Absurdities — Legend of Quetzalcoatl 
— He came from the East — The legend a myth — Colleges of priests — Prac- 
tice of confession — The alleged figure of Buddha — The elephant's head — Lack 
of tusks — America for the Americans — Theory that Hwui Shan repeated the 
stories of Chinese sailors — Remarks of M. de Hellwald and Professor Joly. 

"An Old Story Set Afloat''— hij M Vivien de Samt-lfartin.^'^^ 

CONDENSED TRANSLATION. 

It was the scholarly and industrious de Guignes, the justly 
renowned author of that monument of Oriental erudition enti- 
tled " The History of the Huns," who was the first to make the 
name of Fa-sang known in Europe. . . . An erroneous opinion 
on this subject does not diminish the merit of his great works, 
any more than it is affected by his other idea, equally strange, 
of the Egyptian origin of the Chinese. . . . 

As the route from Leao-tong to Fu-sang passes by way of 
Japan, Wen-shin, and Ta-han, the precise situation of the coun- 
try of Ta-han becomes of interest in considering the true loca- 
tion of Fu-sang. This can not be determined with certainty 
from the statements of the historian. The point in Japan which 
is touched en route is not specified, the directions are but vaguely 



186 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

noted, and, worse than all, the distances that are indicated can 
not be relied upon, for we are not only ignorant as to the length 
of the li (an extremely variable measure) which is referred to in 
the account, but it should be remembered that the Chinese sail- 
ors can have had but very imperfect means of measuring the 
distances, and their figures can therefore be taken as nothing 
more than rough approximations. 

Hence, we can be guided only by the general indications. 
Fortunately, there are several which prevent us from straying 
far from the true course. The Hairy Men among the mountains 
of Northern Japan, and the Wen-shm, or Painted (or Tattooed) 
Men, are clearly the Ainos ; from which it follows that the coun- 
try of the Wen-shin must be looked for along the shores of the 
Sea of Japan (lying between the Japanese Archipelago and the 
coast of Tartary), either at the northern extremity of the great 
island of Niphon, or in the island of Jesso (which is also called 
Matsmai), or, finally, upon some point of the Asiatic Continent 
(Mantchooria) which borders the Japanese Sea on the west. 

From the land of the Weyi-shin, a maritime route conducts 
us to the country designated by the name of Ta-han. Neither 
the distance (five thousand li) nor the direction (toward the 
east) can be of much service to us in looking for this last point. 
Fortunately, there is another document, which furnishes ub with 
indications so precise as' to remove all doubts, which are not 
scattered by the account of the Chinese coasting voyage. The 
result, as will be seen, is to place Ta-han near the mouths of the 
Amoor, perhaps in the great island of Sagh alien (or Tarakai), 
which lies opposite them, but more probably upon the Asiatic 
Continent. 

This document is a description of the journey, written by 
Buddhist missionaries of the time of the T'ang dynasty (618 to 
907 A. D.), who went to preach their doctrine among the barbar- 
ous hordes and half-savage tribes of Central and Eastern Asia. 
It is to this dissemination of the Buddhist religion, dating at least 
as far back as the first half of the fifth century of our era, that 
the shamanism of the nomadic tribes of Central Asia is due. 
The Buddhist missionaries of China, who undertook this voy- 
age, set forth from the great bend which the Hoang-ho makes 
west of Pekin, and crossed the desert of Gobi, thus gaining the 
principal encampment of the Turkish Hoei-Jche, from which they 



REMARKS OF M. VIVIEN DE SAINT-MARTIN". 187 

afterward reached the celebrated Mongolian city of Caracorum, 
of which the ruins may still be seen, not far from the sources of 
the Orkhon, about one hundred and fifty leagues to the south of 
Lake Baikal. From that point the route continued to this lake, 
and, turning to the east, they, after having visited a number of 
Turkish and Mongolian tribes of the Daourian region, and of 
the high valleys of the Amoor, reached the country of the Yu- 
che, a people whom the Mantchoos (who pronounce their name 
"DJourdJe") regard as the parent tribe of their nation. This 
country lies about half way down the Amoor River. 

Here we are upon known ground. During the ten years that 
the Russians have had possession of this vast basin of the 
Amoor, it has been thoroughly explored, maps and descriptions 
of the country have been published, and the land and its people 
have become familiar to us. The indigenes are miserable tribes 
of semi-savages, living by the chase and by fisheries. They be- 
long to the nation of the Tunguses, which is a branch of the race 
of the Mantchoos. There are some tribes, however (the Ghiliaks), 
spread along the sea-shore, which belong to the insular race, and 
differ but slightly from the Ainos, whose long beards, and the 
singular development of whose hairy system, not less than their 
physical appearance and the combination of their physiognomi- 
cal traits, distinguish them broadly from the beardless Tartarian 
races which are confined to the continent. 

The few germs of rudimentary civilization, of which the 
trace is found among the tribes of the Amoor, are of Buddhist 
origin ; they undoubtedly appertain to several different epochs ; 
but the oldest are connected with the missions of the sixth cent- 
ury and the three following centuries, which are mentioned in 
the texts which de Guignes was the first to describe. This is a 
real service, among many others, which the scholarly author of 
the "History of the Huns" has rendered to science, and of which 
his error as to the location of Ta-han does not at all diminish 
the merit. A very curious discovery, made some ten years ago, 
upon the banks of the lower portion of the Amoor River, by one 
of the first Russian explorers, confirms the accuracy of the old 
accounts collected by the Chinese historians. Near the Ghiliak 
" Village of the Tower," the remains of pillars were found, hav- 
ing Chinese and Mongolian inscriptions, containing Buddhist 
formulas. The pillars are delineated, and the inscriptions copied. 



188 A.^ INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

in the interesting volume published at Paris in 1861 by M. de 
Sabin (from recent Russian material) under the title, "The Amoor 
River; its History, Geography, and Ethnography." One of the 
inscriptions, if the translation is exact, is of the time of the Yuan 
(Mongolian) dynasty, which reigned in China from 1260 to 1338 
A. D. ; but there were older establishments there, for the inscrip- 
tion itself speaks of a re-established convent.* We therefore 
now have direct proof that the missionaries of the religion of 
Buddha (or of 2*h, as the Chinese write his name) not only intro- 
duced shamanism throughout all Central Asia, but pushed to 
the east and descended the valley of the Amoor to the shores of 
the Eastern Sea ; while other propagators of this worship, so 
distinguished for its proselyting spirit, overspread (by the mari- 
time route) all the shores of that sea enclosed between the Japa- 
nese Archipelago and Mantchooria, which our maps designate 
by the name of the Sea of Japan. The country of Ta-han, at 
which the two parties of missionaries arrived, one from the west 
by land, and the other from the south by sea, and which was, 
for both, the extreme limit of their journeys, can be found no- 
where else than near the mouth of the Amoor. The maritime 
voyage carries us in this direction, and the terrestrial route can 
lead us nowhere else. It is, in fact, said of the Yu-che (the Tun- 
guses of the valley of the Amoor, near the middle of its course) 
that by a ten days' journey to the north the country of Ta-han 
may be reached. . . . 

Arrived at Ta-han, we are, as it were (in spite of the dis- 
tance), upon the threshold of Fii-sang, the final point of our 
search ; for the single Buddhist traveler, Avho made the name of 
the mysterious country of Fu-sang known to the Chinese, set 
forth from Ta-han, and no intermediate country is mentioned. 

But, in this controverted question, it is a matter of the first 
importance to have a translation free from suspicion. Although 
we do not wish to cast any doubt upon the general accuracy of 
de Guignes's translation, which has, in addition, been criticised 
by Klaproth, nevertheless, in order to have all possible assur- 
ance of freedom from error, we have had recourse to the inex- 
haustible kindness of M. Stanislas Julien, and give the literal 
version with which this scholar kindly favoured us. It may be 
depended upon that he has given a scrupulously faithful tran- 

* Sabin, p. 158. 



EEMARKS OF M. VIVIEN DE SAINT-MARTIN". 189 

script of the Chinese text. (This translation is given in Chapter 
XVI.) 

A few short remarks will suffice to show that it is quite im- 
possible that the country of Fu-sang could have been located in 
America. To the reasons, sufficiently decisive, which were given 
by Klaproth, it is now possible to add others more direct and 
more convincing. 

First, as to the distance. We have already seen how dan- 
gerous it is to rely upon statements of this nature contained in 
Chinese books, especially when they relate to great distances in 
countries that are known but little or not at all ; and, when they 
are given by men who are generally ignorant, they are without 
any guarantee whatever of even approximate accuracy. As- 
suredly this is the case as to the account which we are now con- 
sidering. It is evident that, in the mouth of the Buddhist mis- 
sionary to whom the Chinese are indebted for their only knowl- 
edge of the country of Fu-sang, twenty thousand li signify 
nothing more than a very great distance. Nevertheless, if we 
adhere to the letter of his account and to the direction, " to the 
east," where are we conducted ? Leaving the neighbourhood of 
the lower Amoor, turning past the island of Saghalien, passing 
by the way of the Kurile Islands and along the long chain of 
the Aleutian Islands (i. e., following the line the most favour- 
able to the American hypothesis), we scarcely reach beyond the 
peninsula of Alaska, and are placed in the midst of a region 
having a climate that is almost polar, and of which the miser- 
able indigenous population does not correspond in any way with 
the statements of the text. 

For those who have thought that Fu-sang might be sought 
for as far as Mexico, we would simply observe that the part of 
the American coast to which the twenty thousand li conduct us 
is distant more than fifty degrees, or at least twelve hundred 
leagues, from the Mexican coast.* 

This first argument would seem sufficient ; but other impossi- 
bilities are revealed by merely reading the text. 

The description of the fu-sang tree, and of its uses, is abso- 
lutely foreign to America, either to Mexico, or to the northwest 
coast. Klaproth very justly remarked that the description, by 

* This argument falls to the ground, if Ta-han is located either in the Aleu- 
tian Islands or in Alaska. — E. P. V. 



190 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

confusion, or from some other cause, appears to apply to the 
Morus papyrifera, although the tree commonly known in China 
by the name oi fu-sang must be the Rose of China, the Hibiscus 
rosa Chinensis. 

It has never been said that the miserable savages of the 
northwestern coast of America had a method of writing, or that 
they made paper; and it could not be said of the more southerly 
tribes, or of the nations of Mexico, whose whole life was always 
a combat, ''that they did not make war." 

The cattle (if this term is applied to the bisons) have never 
been employed as draught animals by any of the indigenous 
tribes of America. The aboriginal Americans have never had 
carts drawn by horses, cattle, or deer, for two excellent reasons : 
first, because the Americans, before the arrival of the Spaniards, 
had no horses ; and, second, because they knew no more of draught 
animals than of beasts of burden. The tribes of America had no 
idea of raising animals for their milk ; they knew nothing either 
of milk or of the articles made from it, and therefore made no 
cheese. 

It seems useless to insist further on these radical points of 
difference between Fu-sang and America. Those who seek for 
Fu-sang in Mexico should reflect that, at the time of the old 
Toltec monarchy (according to the historic traditions, which are 
our only guides), it then had, in its local civilization, religious 
monuments, palaces, and numerous cities, of which it is surpris- 
ing that the Buddhist account says not a word. So that, on one 
side, no part of the story is applicable to any country or tribe 
whatever of America, and, on the other side, the account says 
not a single word of the only things which would most strike a 
stranger coming into Western America in the times of the Tol- 
tec monarchy.* 

We have said nothing of the diificulties, or rather the mate- 
rial impossibilities, of a navigation, going and returning, between 
the Sea of Japan and America, at the time spoken of in the Bud- 
dhist account ; as contradictions and radical impossibilities have 
accumulated, it would appear too fastidious to insist upon fur- 

* M. Vivien overlooks the fact that the Toltec civilization may have been 
founded mainly upon the teachings of the Buddhist monks, and that, therefore, 
the religious monuments, palaces, etc., may not have existed until after the date 
of their arrival. — E. P. V. 



EEMARKS OF M. VIVIEN DE SAINT-MAETIN. 191 

ther details. It should be noted that reference is made, not to 
an accidental voyage, but to a communication, regular, and, as 
it seems, habitual.* That de Guignes may have believed in the 
possibility of such a communication, in the state in which the 
ideas of Europe then were in regard to the northwestern coast 
of the American Continent above California, can be conceived. 
In order to see how far the general notions prevailing a hundred 
years ago were from the truth, it is only necessary to cast our 
eyes upon the map made by Philippe Buache to accompany the 
memoir of de Guignes. This map, it is true, would make d'An- 
ville smile ; but Buache was not a d'Anville, and it is not neces- 
sary to go back a hundred years to see how frequently it is the 
case that men, otherwise sagacious, have but a vague idea of the 
important part which the study of positive geography should 
have in the solution of scientific questions. 

It would remain to seek the true situation of Fa-sang, if this 
question had the least importance ; but its sole interest lies in its 
having been attached to the complicated question of the origin 
of the Americans; which has given rise to as many vain hypothe- 
ses as useless and false speculations. Like all problems in which 
the effort is to penetrate the depths of the centuries in order to 
find the half-obliterated traces of events anterior to history, this 
question presents a powerful attraction ; but such researches have 
their conditions and their limits, to which scarcely any attention 
has been paid in the investigations regarding America. Fii-sang 
has nothing to do with American questions. From that which 
the Buddhist priest tells us, it is evident that he speaks of a 
country in which there existed a certain degree of civilization 
— which excludes all the savage countries of Asia to the north 
of Ta-han (Eastern Siberia and Kamtchatka). It is therefore 
necessary to look in some other direction. The disposition of 
the insular countries of Eastern Asia leaves only one : that to the 
southeast or the south. Klaproth thought that Fii-sang might 
be a part of Niphon, the largest island of the archipelago ; and 
this supposition is, as has been said, the most probable. It be- 
comes a certainty, if, as Klaproth affirms, Fu-sang is in fact one 
of the names which Japan has borne. 

I will add only a word on the subject of the memoir of M. 
Gustave d'Eichthal. The essay of this scholarly author is an at- 
* I can find no authority for this statement. — E. P. V. 



192 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

tempt to prove that the Mexican civilization not only comes 
from Asia, but that it has a Buddhistic origin. It is for this rea- 
son, evidently, that he has warmly taken in hand the defense of 
the ideas of de Guignes, which, in fact, if they could be sus- 
tained, would furnish a direct explanation of the analogies which, 
as some believe, have been discovered between certain delinea- 
tions figured ujDon the Aztec monuments and some of the monu- 
ments of India. 

Whether well founded or not, these analogies have no neces- 
sary connection with the question of Fu-sang. This question is 
entirely one of geography, and it is only from this stand-point 
that I have regarded it. The other question has an archaeologi- 
cal side, of which the examination should be conducted by those 
more competent than myself. 

Condensed Translation of an Article read by M. Liicien 
Adam before the International Congress of Americanists, 
at Nancy, ISIS.'' 

It is not my intention to fully go over the discussion regard- 
ing the Chinese account of the country of Fu-sang (dating froni 
the fifth century), which discussion has been going on from 1761 
to the present time ; but it is plain that the advantage remains 
with de Guignes, at least as far as regards the geographical de- 
termination of the location of this country. 

The elements of this first part of the problem are in substance 
as follows : 

Li-yen, a Chinese historian who lived during the first part 
of the seventh century, speaks of a country called Fu-sang, dis- 
tant more than twenty thousand li from China, toward the east. 
He said that, in order to reach that country, it was necessary to 
set forth from the coast of the province of Leao-t07ig, situated 
to the north of Pe-Mn; that, after traveling twelve thousand 
li, Japan, properly so called — that is to say, Niphon — was reached; 
that from there, after a voyage of seven thousand li to the 
northeast, the country of the Wen-shin \f2i% reached; and that five 
thousand li from this last-named country, toward the east, the 
country of Ta-han was found, from which the country of Fu- 
sang could be reached, which lay twenty thousand li farther 
east. The total distance from Leao-tong to Fu-sang, touching 



EEMAKKS OF M. LUCIEN ADAM. 193 

successively at Niphon, Wen-shin, and Ta-han, was therefore 
forty-four thousand li. 

Of these five terms two are known, Leao-tong and Niphon, 
De Guignes and Klaproth agree in placing the third in the island 
of Jesso. But while de Guignes identifies Ta-han with Kara- 
tchatka and Fu-sang with California, Klaproth thinks that the 
fourth country named must be the island of Krafto, and the 
fifth the southeastern coast of Niphon. 

I agree with Messrs. Neumann, de Paravey, Perez, d'Eich- 
thal, Godron, and Leland, that upon these two points de Guignes 
has the best of the argument as against Klaproth, and that in 
fact the Chinese have known, at least from the sixth century, 
of the existence of the New World; since discovered in the year 
1000 by the Icelander Leif Erikson, in 1488 by Jean Cousin 
of Dieppe, and in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. 

I think it important to add the fact mentioned by Com- 
mander Maury and Colonel Kennon,* an old officer of the United 
States Navy, that it is possible to go from China to America by 
way of the islands of Japan, the Kurile Islands, the coast of 
Kamtchatka, the Aleutian Islands, and Alaska, without ever los- 
ing sight of land for more than a few hours, and that the dis- 
covery of America would not present any very serious difficulty 
to Chinese sailors. 

After having established the fact of this discovery, by the 
geographical article of the historian Li-yen, de Guignes pub- 
lished a description of Fu-sang, borrowed by him from 31a 
Twan-lin, which was published for the first time in a portion 
of the " Great Annals of China," entitled Nan Szu. 

The story of the Buddhist monk is rendered the more proba- 
ble from the established fact that in the fifth century of the 
Christian era numerous Buddhist monks, actuated entirely by 
religious motives, accomplished voyages nearly as long as, and 
certainly more dangerous than, that from Leao-tong to the coast 
of California. Again, at the time when the predecessors of 
Jloei Shin visited Fu-sang, Samarcand, situated almost in the 
center of Asia, was incontestably one of the principal centers of 
Buddhist propagandism. 

* Mr. Leland has, in his book entitled " Fusang," inserted a letter from Colo 
nel Kennon, who, during the years 1853-'56, was connected with the expedition 
sent out for the purpose of surveying the shores of Bchring's Strait. 
13 



194 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

From this double point of view, it is far from being improba- 
ble that, coming into the countiy lying in the neighbourhood of 
the Amoor River, the monks of Samarcand should have heard a 
country mentioned as lying far to the east, and that these apos- 
tles should have sailed in the direction of the rising sun, coast- 
ing along by the way of the islands which connect the Old 
World with the New. 

For the rest, it is necessary to determine whether the de- 
scription of Fu-scmg given by ffoei Shin is applicable to any 
particular portion of the American Continent with a precision 
such that we will be compelled to consider the Chinese monk as 
an eye-witness. 

To this question I answer, without hesitation, that a very 
small number of the details reported by Jloei Shin present a 
character that is truly American ; that the remainder are purely 
fanciful and absurd, and that the story as a whole can not be 
considered as testimony worthy of credit. 

The lack of iron, the paper made from bark, and the absence 
of metallic money, are indeed points that are characteristic of 
America ; but it should also be borne in mind that the same 
facts were found in the history of several other countries situ- 
ated to the east of China, notably in the Loo Choo Islands. 

The cycle of ten years is used in Peru ; but Fu-sang can not 
be placed in South America, and Mr. Leland, who does not wish 
to lose the benefit of the decennial cycle, supposes that in the 
fifth century Mexico may have been inhabited by the ancestors 
of the present Peruvians ! 

Except these four statements — of which the first three are 
not exclusively American, and the last is not applicable to the 
civilization of North America — I can not see anything worthy of 
credit in the account of Hoei Shin. 

In the first place, the fu-sang tree described by this monk 
can not be the maguey, or great American aloe. "I do not 
know," said Dr. Godron, speaking in 1868, "to what botanical 
species the tree mentioned by the Chinese narrator can be re- 
ferred." The scholarly botanist has not changed his opinion, 
and has kindly written me a note which settles the question 
definitely : 

*' The Buddhist monk, Hoei Shin, describes, as existing in 
the country of Fu-sang, a tree of which the fruit is red and pear- 



KEMAKKS OF M. LUCIEN ADAM. I95 

shaped, and which produces this fruit all the year round ; its 
leaves being similar to those of the tree Vung, and its sprouts 
to those of the bamboo. Some have believed that in this plant 
they recognized the Hibiscus rosa Sinensis or the Hibiscus 
Syriacus, The second is out of the question, since it is a native 
of no other country than Syria. It is cultivated as an ornamental 
tree in our gardens. The first grows spontaneously in China, as 
well as in Cochin-China, according to Laureiro ; it is cultivated 
in all the gardens of the two peninsulas of India, and may also 
be seen in our orangeries. These two species of hibiscus do not 
have red or pear-shaped fruit. Their fruit is surrounded by 
large bracts, which envelop it ; it is capsular, and opens at ma- 
turity. 

" It has also been said that the fu-sang tree is the Dryanda 
cordata. This plant, of the family of the Euphorbiaces, is a 
tree of little height, which grows wild in Japan. The fruit is a 
globular and woody capsule of the size of a walnut with its husk ; 
it contains several kernels, from which a very acrid poisonous oil 
is extracted, which is much used as an oil for lamps, and which 
in China bears the name of Mu-yeu, The leaves are large, 
and disposed in tufts at the ends of the branches ; they have a 
leaf-stalk, are heart-shaped, and do not in any way resemble 
(any more than those of the Hibiscus rosa Sinensis and Sy- 
riacus) the leaves of the bamboo, which are shaped like 
those of the grasses. The bamboos appertain to an entirely 
different grand division of the vegetable kingdom from the 
Malvaces and the Euphorbiaces. But Hoei Shin was no bot- 
anist. 

"The maguey, or Agave Americana, answers still less to the 
description of the Buddhist monk ; its fruit is neither red nor 
pear-shaped, but is a hexagonal capsule, and its extremely large 
leaves form a rosette about the roots. 

" Of the plants to which that mentioned by the Buddhist 
monk has been compared, none are American, with the exception 
of the agave, and, moreover, it seems as impossible to reconcile 
any plant of China or Japan with the description, as any plant 
of the New "World. The question seems to us, up to the j^res- 
ent time, to be insoluble." 

I remark, upon the subject of the fu-sang tree, that Hoei Shin 
does not mention the long thorns which characterize the maguey, 



19G AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and does not say anything of the alcoholic liquor which is ex- 
tracted in Mexico from the heart of the plant. 

The zoology of the Buddhist monk is no more correct than 
his botany, for horses were brought to America from Europe in 
the sixteenth century ; and it is well known that at the time of 
the conquest the inhabitants of the New World had neither 
beasts of burden nor draught animals. The pretended herds of 
deer of Fic-sang are evidently herds of reindeer ; and as to the 
cattle, or bisons, they have been found domesticated, not upon 
the coast of the Pacific, where we would naturally look for Fu- 
sang, but rather in the ancient country of Cibola — that is to say, 
in the region now known as New Mexico, where the houses are 
constructed of unburned bricks, and where the Indians, called 
Pueblo Indians, live in fortified towns, in order to defend them- 
selves against the incursions of the red-skins. 

Messrs. d'Eichthal and Leland have ingeniously sought to 
explain this part of the account of Uoei Shin by substituting, 
for horses, animals of a great height, and with branching horns, 
which the Spaniards call " horse-deer," and by transporting Fu- 
sang into the interior of the continent, because of the bisons 
found in Cibola. But the details given by the monk, relative to 
the construction of the houses, to the cities, and to the military 
weapons, absolutely exclude New Mexico, Arizona, and Califor- 
nia itself. 

M. d'Eichthal has endeavoured to explain the idle tale of the 
two prisons, by the dogmas as to future punishment held by the 
Mandans : the prison of the north being understood as hell, and 
that of the south as paradise. What, then, becomes of the mar- 
riages contracted by the prisoners, and the children sold as 
slaves, the boys at the age of eight years and the girls at that 
of nine ? Evidently Hoei Shin speaks of temporal punishment 
and of prisons in the present life. 

Of the ceremonies of marriage, the punishments inflicted 
on criminals of the different classes of society, and of the coun- 
try inhabited by white women, I can see nothing to say, except 
that it is all imaginary, and stamped with the imprint of mani- 
fest absurdity. 

I now hasten to discuss the most important question raised 
by the account. Is it certain, or even credible, that Hoei Shin 
found Fu-sang- America converted to Buddhism, as he expressly 



REMARKS OF M. LUCIEN ADAM. 197 

declared ? If the apostles, who came from Samarcand, spread 
abroad the worship of Buddha, and with it the sacred books and 
holy images of that religion, we should expect to find some- 
thing of all this in their traditionary history (since writing was 
unknown), and in their monuments. 

History, properly so called, is absolutely mute concerning any 
religious revolution of the fifth century. It is true, however, 
that this silence might be explained by claiming that the natives 
formerly had books, which have been destroyed. Let us, there- 
fore, examine their traditions, and see whether, as has been 
thought by some, Quetzalcoatl, the god of the city of Cholula, 
may not have been one of the five monks of Samarcand. 

According to Motolinia, Quetzalcoatl was a white man, of 
good height, having a large forehead, and great eyes ; his hair 
was long and black ; he wore a large beard, trimmed to a round 
shape.. He was chaste and peaceable, and very moderate in all 
things. So far was he from asking that the blood of men, or 
even of animals, should be shed in sacrifice, that he held no of- 
ferings as agreeable except those of bread, flowers, or perfume ; 
he prohibited all acts of violence, and detested war. Finally, he 
lacerated his body with the thorns of the agave, and recom- 
mended the practice of the most severe penances. 

I admit that the resemblance is specious ; but if there is one 
point upon which the legend is particularly plain, it is that Que- 
tzalcoatl came from a country situated to the east of America, 
and that, when he took leave of his disciples on the eastern 
coast, he told them that white men, bearded like himself, would 
come by sea from the east and subdue the entire country. It is 
said that the cause of Montezuma's ruin was his blind faith in 
this prophecy. To this first reason for doubting that Quetzal- 
coatl can have been a Buddhist priest, there may be added a 
second, which I think decisive. Quetzalcoatl, who, according to 
the legend, came from Tula to Cholula — that is to say, from one 
Toltec capital to another — appeared as the ideal representative of 
the Toltec race ; but before he was invested with this marvelous 
form, under which there was poorly concealed an energetic pro- 
test of the vanquished nation against the belligerent disposition 
and sanguinary tastes of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl had been a god 
similar in appearance to all the rest. At Tula his visage was 
hideous. At Cholula his body was that of a man, and his head 



198 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

that of a bird with a red beak. Finally, at a much older period, 
Quetzalcoatl had been, in the north, purely and simply a bird, 
representing the hieroglyphical sign of the air ; and, in the south, 
sometimes an aerolite, and sometimes a serpent. 

The Quetzalcoatl of the legend is, therefore, a personage not 
less fabulous than the Saturn of the Latins, than Bochica, the 
legendary white man of the Musca Indians, or Manco Capac, the 
legislator of the Incas.* 

In America, as in Europe, the golden age, or age of peace, has 
been a popular fancy, and it may be affirmed that during the 
fifth century the New World was the theatre of incessant wars, 
which is, moreover, attested by the immense defensive works 
discovered in the valleys of the Gila, the Colorado, the Ohio, 
and the Mississippi. As to the colour of the personage in whom 
the ideal of the golden age is incarnated, it should be remarked 
that Quetzalcoatl has often been represented with a red visage, 
and that among all nations, not belonging to the Caucasian race, 
whiteness of the skin has been considered a sort of blessing, im- 
plying a divine mission or a superior nature. 

The existence in Mexico of religious orders or of colleges of 
priests, of which the members took vows of asceticism, of poverty, 
and of mortification of the body, does not necessarily imply the 
preaching either of Buddhism or of Christianity, for America is 
not the only country in which men who were not connected 
with either of these two great religions have united themselves 
to practice frightful austerities in common. As for the volun- 
tary tortures esteemed as honourable by the Mandan Indians, 
some of them bear a close resemblance to the tortures which the 
fanatics of East India inflict upon themselves ; but, as has been 
very judiciously remarked by M. Foucaux, these practices point 
us to Brahmanism rather than to Buddhism. Finally, it is no- 
torious that the races of the New World have, in their life as 
hunters, and in their perpetual wars, acquired an incredible 
power of supporting suffering stoically, and that most of them 
systematically submit their young warriors to the most cruel 
trials of their endurance. 

The practice of auricular confession by the natives of Mexico 

* The same course of reasoning in regard to the myths that in Xew Mexico 
and Arizona have gathered about the name of Montezuma, would prove, quite as 
conclusively, that no such chieftain ever lived. — ^E. P. V. 



EEMARKS OF M. LUCIEIT ADAM. 199 

would be an argument more conclusive than the preceding, if it 
had not been superabundantly established that the avowal of 
faults is a custom that is almost universal. 

For the rest, the traditions and beliefs of the ancient races of 
America constitute a field in which all investigators find almost 
everything that they desire ; and I can oppose to the opinion of 
M. d'Eichthal, where he recognizes Buddhist influences, the opin- 
ions of others who think that they see Christian influences — of 
which the agents were the apostles Saint Bartholomew and Saint 
Thomas — or the colonists of Great Ireland or those of Hvitra- 
mannaland. 

It remains, therefore, to verify the uncertain data of tradi- 
tion by the examination of monuments and antiquities. 

In the belief of M. G. d'Eichthal, the results 'of the Buddhist 
preaching of the fifth century are visible upon the walls of the 
Palace of Palenque, and the House of the Nuns at Uxmal. 

It may be objected to the view of d'Eichthal that the bas- 
relief described by him is identical with others found in Bud- 
dhist temples ; that, according to Dupaix, Lenoir, Catlin, de Wal- 
deck, and M. Viollet-le-Duc, Palenque was built much later than 
the fifth century of our era. But this is a question that is still 
undecided, and I must recognize the fact that, in the opinion of 
Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft, the date of the construction of Pa- 
lenque can only be uncertainly fixed as some time between the 
first and the eighth century of the Christian era. 

It should be observed, moreover, that Stephens, who copied 
the bas-relief, saw no trace of Buddhism in it. M. Lenoir has 
confined himself to saying that there is an analogy between the 
attitude of the principal figure and the usual pose of Buddha. 
M. d'Eichthal, however, does not hesitate to raise a simple an- 
alogy in the position into a complete identity, doing this with- 
out paying any attention to the statements of Stephens : that 
the character of the principal personage is the same as that of 
personages represented elsewhere in the palace ; that the pre- 
tended worshiper is sitting cross-legged, and not upon his 
knees ; that the offering does not consist of a flower, either of 
the lotus or of the cacao-tree, but of a bunch of plumes, an 
ornament essentially American, which is lacking in the head- 
dress of the principal personage ; that similar plumes are asso- 
ciated with the figures of other divinities of Palenque ; and, 



200 AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

finally, that the ruins of this stone-built city are situated in the 
Atlantic state of Chiapas, and not in the kingdom of Cibola, or 
upon the western coast. M. Lenoir, when he spoke of analogy, 
had nothing else in mind than the pose of the principal per- 
sonage, sitting with legs crossed. Now, there exists at Copan a 
bas-relief in which four personages, incontestably American, are 
represented in this same attitude. 

Of the figure seated in the niche of the wall of the House of 
Monks at Uxmal, Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft assures us that it is 
not certainly known whether this figure, which has now disap- 
peared, was copied from nature or drawn from the more or less 
uncertain descriptions of the Indians. In any case, it is true 
that M. de Waldeck, who was looking for Buddhist resem- 
blances, did not himself recognize the figure as that of Buddha, 
and this is a very important fact. 

Mr. Leland does not share in what I may be permitted to call 
the Buddhistic illusions of M. Gustave d'EichthaL " Images re- 
sembling the ordinary Buddha have been found," says he, " in 
Mexico and Central America, but they can not be proved to 
be identical with it." This is the truth. The ancient monu- 
ments of America sometimes present, in certain details, analo- 
gies with the principle of Grecian art, Assyrian art, Egyptian 
art, and Hindoo art ; but these points of resemblance are purely 
accidental, and are owing to the unity of the human mind, and, 
from the mere fact that the conclusions drawn from them are 
conti'adictory between themselves, it is evident that no impor- 
tant historical point can be determined by their means. 

Mr. Francis A. Allen, who also admits the authenticity of 
the tale of Iloei Shin, believes that he has found upon the walls 
of the temples of Central America an ornament that is very com- 
mon in Buddhist countries. I mean the head and trunk of the 
elephant, an animal unknown in the New World since the last 
glacial pei'iod. This time the argument appears to be without 
reply. The following is a short extract on this subject, from 
the recent work of Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft, on " The Native 
Races of the Pacific States " : 

" At Uxmal, above one of the doors of the ' House of the 
Governor,' there is a sculptured decoration, the central portion 
of which is a curved projection, supposed by more than one 
traveler to be modeled after the trunk of an elephant. It pro- 



REMARKS OF M. LUCIEN ADAM. 201 

jects nineteen inches from the surface of the wall. This pro- 
truding curve occurs more frequently on this and other buildings 
at Uxmal than any other decoration, and usually with the same 
or similar accompaniments which may be fancied to represent 
the features of a monster of which this forms the nose. It oc- 
curs especially on the ornamented and rounded corners, being 
sometimes reversed in its position. The same ornament is found 
in the ruins of Zayi, at the angle of the fajade of the Casa 
Grande, and at Labna at the corner of a palace, where the sup- 
posed trunk is superposed upon the mouth of an alligator inclos- 
ing a human head. . . . Finally, the head-dress of one of the 
personages represented upon a bas-relief of the Palace at Pa- 
lenque presents a somewhat striking resemblance to an elephant's 
trunk." 

The projection described by Mr. Bancroft reproduces, to a 
certain extent, the curve of the trunk of the elephant ; but it 
should be noted that the tusks of the animal are lacking. In 
the absence of this characteristic part, it may be legitimately 
supposed that, if the artist attempted to copy the nasal append- 
age of any animal (which is not at all evident), his model may 
have been the American tapir.* 

That which I said above regarding the traditions of the an- 
cient Americans is equally applicable to their monuments. Every 
one interprets them in the sense that serves his theories the best, 
and I dare say that too often the archaeology of the New World 
is studied to find an argument for the defense of preconceived 
theories, or to extend and systematize analogies that are entirely 
accidental. 

While I lived in the United States, I often heard the claim 
that America was made for the Americans ; which I am far from 
wishing to contradict. It is to be desired that this formula 
should be introduced into the study of American antiquities, to 
serve as a fundamental rule, and that, for the future, we should 
not seek in America for India, Egypt, Assyria, or Greece, but 
for America itself. 

Returning to Fii-sang : I think that the Chinese had a 
knowledge of America, at least in the seventh century, but I 

* But the proboscis of the tapir is hardly noticeable, and it never takes the 
curve characteristic of the elephant's trunk, shown in these Central American 
decorations. — E. P V. 



202 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

reject absolutely the tale of Jloei Shin. I understand thereby 
that this missionary had collected fables, mixed with a very 
little truth, from the mouths of the Chinese sailors ; that he 
played upon his compatriots by boasting that he had visited 
this American Fu-sang; and that he was induced to tell this 
falsehood by the pious desire to aggrandize the kingdom of 
Buddha in their eyes. 

M. Frederick de Hellwald said that the question of Fa- 
sang recurs periodically, and is obstinately reproduced from time 
to time, just as certain journals occasionally repeat the differ- 
ent tales regarding the apparition of the sea-serpent : and as it 
is a fact that no one has been given an opportunity to study this 
monstrous animal zoologically, just so no one has ever given 
scientific proof of the discovery of America by the Chinese. In 
1871 the "Athena3um," of London, related this account of the 
discovery of America by the yellow men as a thing entirely new. 
Dr. Bretschneider at that time amply refuted this fable ; but this 
has not prevented an English book from taking the subject up 
again recently. It is to be feared that the refutation of Messrs. 
de Rosny and Lucien Adam will not prevent a re-appearance 
of the monster. The Congress of Americanists will render a 
true service to science by declaring that it holds Fu-sang as a 
scientific sea-serpent, and by prohibiting it from infesting the 
regions of American studies. 

Professor Joly, of Toulouse, could understand this impatience 
for a solution of the problem, but did not share in it. Before 
rejecting the Asiatic hypothesis, should not the proofs bearing 
upon the subject which can be furnished by the auxiliary sciences 
be exhausted ? Do we know enough of American archaeology, 
zoology, anthropology, and craniology to be able to decide au- 
thoritatively ? Is it too much to ask that the attempt to solve 
the question be postponed, at least until a later sitting of the 
Congress ? 

Returning to the subject of the herds of tame cattle and of 
deer, mentioned by Hoei Shin, M. Joly asked whether these so- 
called cattle might not be understood to be the largest of the 
domestic quadrupeds of Central America, the llama, which is 
used as a pack animal and to draw loads of goods. 

M. Lucien Adam observed that the llama inhabits only 



• KEMAPvKS OF PROFESSOR JOLY. 203 

South America, particularly Peru. Fu-sang is at one time sup- 
posed to be Mexico ; presently it is moved to Arizona, in order 
to find the bison there ; and then to Russian America, in order to 
find the reindeer : now we descend to Peru, in order that we 
may find a sufficiently imperfect representative of cattle in the 
llamas of that country. 

M. Jolt thought that paleontology might furnish a better 
solution of the question of the communication between America 
and Eastern Asia. Could not the representations of the elephant 
upon the walls of Palenque be explained by a knowledge, on 
the part of the natives, not of a contemporaneous elephant, but 
of some one of the primitive elephants — the mammoth or the 
mastodon? Might not the Mexicans have discovered some 
skulls of the Flephas 2)rlmo[/e7incs which existed in America dur- 
ing the glacial period? Might not the figure of this animal 
have been preserved in some prehistoric design, as in France the 
image of the reindeer or the cave-bear has been preserved graven 
upon fragments of deer-horns? It is denied that Jloei Shin 
could have found horses in America. Undoubtedly the horse 
was imported by the conquering Spaniards ; but may not an in- 
digenous equine race have existed in America ? 

Have not beds of the bones of horses been found in the Bad 
Lands ? Until the soil of America has been more thoroughly 
examined, and more fully studied, so that it shall have deliv- 
ered up its paleontological secrets, M. Joly asked that caution 
should be exercised regarding this Asiatic hypothesis. 



CHAPTER XII. 
d'heryey's notes. 

Bibliography — The name of the priest — The city of King-cheu — Ta-lian — lAeu- 
kuei, a peninsula — Earlier knowledge of Fu-sang — The construction of the 
dwellings — The lack of arms and armour — The punishment of criminals — The 
titles of the nobles — The title Tui-lu found in Corea — The colours of the king's 
garments — The cycle of ten years — Peruvian history — The long cattle-horns — 
The food prepared from milk — The red pears — Grapes — The worship of 
images of spirits of the dead — Its existence in China — Coph^ne — The " King- 
dom of Women " — The legumes used as food — Wen-shin — The punishment of 
criminals — The name Ta-han — The country identified with Kamtchatka — Two 
countries of that name — One lying north of China, and one lying east — Un- 
warlike nature of the people. 

JVbtes of the Marquis cfHervey de Saint-Deny s on Ma Tican- 
Un's Account of Fu-sang^ Wen-shin, Ta-han, and the ^^ King- 
dom of Women.'''' "^' 

Ma Twan-lin's account of Fu-sang is of exceptional inter- 
est, for it has raised the important question as to whether the 
Chinese knew of America, not only in the fifth century of our 
era, as is indicated by the account of Hoei Shin, but back to 
the most remote antiquity, as I propose to demonstrate a little 
farther on. The Oriental scholar de Guignes was the first to 
find in the works of 3Ia Tican-lin (which had never been inves- 
tigated before by any European student) the mention of the 
country of Fu-sang; which he recognized as belonging to 
North America, and which he thought might be identified with 
California ; being led to this conclusion by studying the route 
followed by the Chinese vessels, which the currents had borne 
to the shores of that country. He set forth this opinion in a 
very justly celebrated memoir; the assertions contained in which 
were opposed by a critic who was very much disposed to deny 
everything that he had not discovered himself. But the feeble- 



D'HERVEY'S NOTES. 205 

ness of his refutation became a powerful argument in support 
of the opinion advanced by de Guignes, for no one was better 
able than Klaproth to expose errors of the kind which he ac- 
cused de Guignes of having committed; and when the poverty of 
his contradictory pleas is exposed, as well as the manifest inac- 
curacy of the statements that he makes, the conclusion is natural 
that the author of the " History of the Huns " has the best of 
the argument. D'Eichthal, the Chevalier deParavey, Professor 
Neumann, and M. Perez have in turn defended de Guignes's 
memoir with much force, by adding numerous new proofs in 
support of those which had been given by that scholar. Finally, 
in a volume full of facts, entitled " Fusang, or the Discovery of 
America," an American author, Mr. Charles G. Leland, has very 
recently devoted himself to the confirmation of the identification 
of Fusang with California or Mexico, by means of more recent 
documents borrowed from the latest researches concerning the 
navigation of the Pacific and the ethnography of the American 
tribes. Dr. Bretschneider alone declares his confidence in the 
judgment of Klaproth ; undoubtedly from the robust faith with 
which there is proof that he was inspired, since he very fairly 
admits that he has read nothing that has been written in opposi- 
tion to his views. Lack of space prevents any analysis of the 
works which I have cited, and which it appears sufficient to point 
out to the reader. I shall take pains to call attention success- 
ively to the passages of this notice which have been the subject 
of controversy, and to several expressions which have been in- 
terpreted in very different ways by de Guignes, Kla23roth, Neu- 
mann, and Bretschneider. I have endeavoured to make my ver- 
sion as literal as possible, so that specialists who are not Sino- 
logues may easily obtain an accurate idea of the original text. 
The same desire to aid in clearing up the question as to Fusang 
induces me to place in an appendix several documents from 
Chinese sources which relate to it, and which I believe have 
never before been published in any European language. 

The name of the Buddhist priest, ^ •^, Neumann writes 
Hoei Shin, and Dr. Bretschneider, Huishen. This appellation 
signifies " very sagacious," or "very intelligent" (not ^^ universal 
compassio)i,^^ as Neumann has translated it ; I can not imagine 
why), and is a religious name, from which no indication can be 
drawn as to the true nationality of the bonze who bore it. Mr. 



206 AN INGLOPwIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Leland writes : " Klaproth says, ' a native of the country,' and by 
* the country ' he means Fu-sang ; but in the German version of 
the same passage, given by Neumann, * the [or this] country ' re- 
fers to China." If Neumann, whose German version I have not 
seen otherwise than in the English translation which Mr. Leland 
has made (adding that it has been revised by Neumann himself), 
gives it to be clearly understood that Hod Shin was a native of 
China, he is surely in error. The characters of the Chinese text, 
ji P, " of that kingdom'' (otherwise, " of this country "), relate 
to Fu-sang, and not to China. It is true that there is nothing in 
the Chinese text to indicate whether Jloei Shin had become a 
bonze in Fu-sang, or whether he was a native of that country. 
This question it is necessary to reserve, and my version is abso- 
lutely literal. 

To arrive at the city of King-cJieu, which was situated in what 
is now called Ilu-kuang, and upon the banks of the Tang-tse- 
kiang, Hoei Shin would be compelled to ascend the river, pass- 
ing Kien-hang, or Nan-hing, which was the capital of the empire 
of the Tsi dynasty. 

De Guignes believed that he was able to identify the country 
of Ta-han with Kamtchatka, and also with the place of exile 
called Lieu-huei by the Chinese. Klaproth thinks that Ta-han-, 
which he also recognizes as the same country as Lieu-huei, must 
be the island of Saghalien, otherwise called Tarakai, or Karafto. 
He adopts this hypothesis arbitrarily, without making any allow- 
ance for the fact that Ma Twan-Un says that Ta-han lies more 
than 5,000 li to the east of Wen-shin, and this in turn more than 
7,000 li northeasterly (not northerly) from Japan, and without 
making any attempt to reconcile his opinion with that statement, 
or with the geographical treatise Long-wei-'pi-shu, which says 
that Lieu-huei could be reached by land, and that the sea sur- 
rounded this country on three sides only. {^^Lieu-Jcuei is to 
the north of the Northern Sea, and is surrounded by the sea on 
three sides.") Dr. Bretschneider places the country of Ta-han 
in Siberia, abandoning Klaproth's opinion on this point ; and 
Professor Neumann, with whom Mr. Leland agrees, affirms that 
he believes the American peninsula of Alaska to have been in- 
tended by this designation. The kingdom of Ta-han is the ob- 
ject of special mention, a little farther on, and I therefore defer, 
for discussion in that connection, several documents which I 



D'HERVEY'S NOTES. 207 

would be obliged to repeat if they were inserted here, merely 
remarking for the present that Ma Tiocm-Un, and other Chinese 
writers, treat separately the countries described by them under 
the name of Lieu-Jcuei and Ta-han, and class the first among the 
regions of the north, and the second among the regions of the 
east. In any case, whatever may be the exact and definite iden- 
tification of Mi-sang, it should not be overlooked that when the 
bonze Iloei Shin, who arrived in the empire of the Tsi (the 
dynasty then ruling a large portion of China) by way of the 
Great Kiang, described Fa-sang as being at the same time to the 
east of Ta-han and of China, he should be understood as speak- 
ing, not of a land of limited extent, but of a true continent. 

I can not allow the phrase of the account of Hoei Shin — read- 
ing, "It [the country of Fu-sangi contains many fu-sang trees, 
and it is from this fact that its name is derived " — to pass, without 
repeating an observation which I made some years ago (in the pref- 
ace of my translation of the Li-sao), and without demonstrating 
that if the bonze Hoei Shin is the first who made the manners of 
the people of Fu-sang known to the Chinese, there was a knowl- 
edge among the Chinese, centuries before him, of the existence 
of such a country. Even during the life-time of Kiu-yuen, the 
author of the poem entitled the Li-sao — that is to say, in the 
third century before our era — the name of Fc-sang was em- 
ployed by the poets to designate the countries to the extreme 
east. Now, the fact that this denomination of Fu-sang was 
not an imaginary one, but a name drawn from a peculiar product 
of a particular country, necessarily implies a real knowledge, 
previously acquired, of the existence of the country so designated. 
The passage relating to the construction of their dwellings 
Klaproth translates : "The planks of the wood [of i'he fu-sang'] 
are used in the construction of their houses " ; and Neumann, ac- 
cording to Mr. Leland's English version, " The houses are built 
of wooden beams." This last translation is the most exact, since 
the Chinese text does not expressly indicate that the planks which 
were used in the construction of the houses were made from the 
wood of the fu-sang tree. 

Klaproth has translated another passage : "They have neither 
arms nor troops " ; Neumann, " The people have no weapons "; and 
Bretschneider, " Arms and war are unknown." No one of these 
three versions is strictly exact ; for the expression " kia-ping " con- 



208 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

veys the idea of soldiers and their military armament, but with- 
out exchiding them from the bow and arrow for hunting (which 
would be included in the collective term " arms ") and of which 
it is not said that the inhabitants of Fu-sang were destitute. 

The statement is made that, " when a crime is committed by 
a person of elevated rank, the people of the kingdom assemble in 
great numbers, place the criminal in an excavation, celebrate a 
banquet in his presence, and take leave of him as of a dying man, 
when he is surrounded with ashes." This is not clear, and leaves 
much in doubt as to the exact punishment of the criminal, of 
which this ceremony appears to be merely a preliminary, in- 
tended to give it more solemnity. It has been supposed that he 
was then sent to either the northern or the southern prison. Neu- 
mann says, " He is covered with ashes," which appears to sig- 
nify that he was buried alive, as de Guignes also understood this 
passage ; but the meaning of the character ^ is " to surround^'* 
and never " to coverP 

The passage relating to the degrees of crime and their pun- 
ishments, Mr. Leland translates, following Neumann : " If the 
offender was one of the lower class, he alone was punished ; 
but, when of rank, the degradation was extended to his chil- 
dren and grandchildren. With those of the highest rank, it at- 
tained to the seventh generation." This interpretation is abso- 
lutely inadmissible. The word of the Chinese text, ^, which 
should be understood of the gravity, literally of the iceight, of a 
crime, can not be used in the sense of the rank, more or less ele- 
vated, of the criminal. Klaproth did not commit this error. 

In the following sentence in regard to the designations of the 
king and the nobility, the title of the nobles of the first class is 
given as ^ J^, Tui-lu. In the great collection, entitled Ku-hin- 
tu-shu-tsi-ching, the text of the " History of the Liang Dynasty," 
from which this account is borrowed, is reproduced, and this pas- 
sage reads, -^ ^^ ]g, Ta Tui-lu (Great Tui-lu), in opposition to 
>]'♦ fl" iS> ^''^^ Tui-lu (Petty Tui-lu, or Tui-lu of the Second Rank), 
an honourary title, which is mentioned immediately below. It is 
therefore probable that the character, '^, ta, has been inadvertent- 
ly suppressed in my editions of the Wen-hien-tong-Jcao ; and this 
was the opinion of de Guignes, who translated this passage, 
" Great and Petty Tui-lu.''^ This detail is of little importance, but 
it is deserving of attention (inasmuch as the remark must be new, 



D'HERVEY'S NOTES. 209 

since the notice of Ma Twan-lm regarding Corea has not been 
translated into any European language before) that the title 
given to the highest dignitaries of Fa-sang is precisely the same 
as that borne by the first dignitaries of Kao-Mu-li (Corea).'"* 
"The mandarins of Kao-li are called ^ f| |g, Ta Tui-lu.''^ 
Eleven other titles, by which lower ranks ai'e called, are also 
given. " The care of the management of the internal and exter- 
nal affairs of state is divided among these twelve ranks of func- 
tionaries. The mandarins, called Ta Tui-lu, are elected and de- 
posed by the members of this rank, by their own authority, 
without consultation either with the king or his ministers." 

In regard to the colour of the king's garments, it should be 
noted that the Chinese often confound blue and green. The 
character ^, employed here, designates equally the azure of the 
sky and the light green of plants commencing to sprout. 

In this connection, reference is made to a cycle of ten years, 
represented by the cyclic characters ^ kia, ^y,^ pi^^Qy ~X 
ti^9j J% ou, ^ ki, ^ ke)i(/, ^ sin, -J- Jin, and ^ kouei, which 
the Chinese use in the formation of their cycle of sixty years, 
associating additional characters with them. Neumann, who 
found a great afiinity between the Mongolian Tartars and Mant- 
choos and the Indians of North America, cites in this connec- 
tion the remark of P^re Gaubil : " I do not know where the 
Mantchoo Tartars learned to express the ten ka7i [or years of the 
decennary cycle] by words which signify colours " ; and he gives 
this curious information of his own ; " The two first years of the 
decennary cycle are called by the Tartars green and greenish, the 
two following years red and reddish, and the other years, in their 
order successively, yelloio and yellowish, white and whitish, and 
black and blackish.''^ Finally, Mr. Leland establishes a very close 
analogy between the institutions of Peru at the time of the Span- 
ish conquest and the picture of the manners of Fu-sang sketched 
by Hoei Shin, and thinks that the same civilization formerly 
reigned in the two Americas. He treats this subject with much 
interest (pages 49-59), and makes the following observations re- 
garding the passage to which this note refers : 

" The change of the colour of the garments of the king, ac- 
cording to the astronomical cycle, is, however, more thoroughly 
in accordance with the spirit of the institutions of the Children 
of the Sun than anything which we have met in the whole of 



210 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

this strange and obsolete record ; and it is indeed remarkable that 
Professor Neumann, who had already indicated the southern 
course of Aztec, or of Mexican, civilization, and who manifested, 
as the reader may have observed, so much shrewdness in adducing 
testimony for the old monk's narrative, did not search more 
closely into Peruvian history for that confirmation which a slight 
inquiry seems to indicate is by no means wanting in it. Thus, 
with regard to the observations of the seasons, Prescott tells us 
that the ' ritual of the Incas involved a routine of observances 
as complex and elaborate as ever distinguished that of any na- 
tion, whether pagan or Christian, Each month had its appro- 
priate festival, or rather festivals. The four principal had refer- 
ence to the sun, and commemorated the great periods of his 
annual progress, the solstices, and equinoxes. Garments of a 
peculiar wool, and feathers of a peculiar colour, were reserved to 
the Inca,' I can not identify the blue, red, yellow, and black 
(curiously reminding one of the alchemical elementary colours, 
still preserved, by a strange feeling for antiquity, or custom, in 
chemists' windows) ; but it is worthy of remark that the rainbow 
was the Inca's special attribute or scutcheon, and that his whole 
life was passed in accordance with the requisitions of astronomi- 
cal festivals ; and the fact that different colours were reserved to 
him, and identified with him, is very curious, and establishes a 
strange analogy with the narrative of Hoei Shin." 

The translation by Klaproth of the sentence, which he gives 
as, " The cattle have long horns, upon which burdens are loaded 
which weigh as much sometimes as twenty Ao," is absolutely in- 
admissible. The reference is, not to cattle upon the heads of 
which burdens are loaded, but to the hollow horns of the cattle, 
which serve as receptacles. The ho is a measure of capacity, 
containing ten teu, or Chinese bushels, and the capacity of the 
Chinese bushel has, it is said, varied from one litre thirty-five to 
one litre fifty-four centilitres. We might be in doubt of the 
existence of horns so extraordinary, but we read, in "L'Histoire 
de la Conquete du Mexique par les Espagnols," that Montezuma 
showed them, as a curiosity, cattle-horns of enormous dimen- 
sions ; and, in his " Tableaux de la Nature," A. von Humboldt 
says that, in making excavations in the southwestern part of 
Mexico, ancient ruins were found, and cattle-horns were discov- 
ered which were truly monstrous. 



D'HERVEY'S NOTES. 211 

I have not translated literally the phrase which refers to the 
food which the people make from milk, owing to the difficulty 
of determining the exact meaning of the character |g, /o, which 
is used to designate the alimentary preparation of which the 
hind's milk furnished the base. The true meaning of the charac- 
ter is curdled milk, and also cream. It also indicates a sort of 
liqiwr which the Tartars make from fermented mare's milk. 
This last sense is adopted by Dr. Bretschneider ; de Guignes has 
translated it butter, and Neumann has imitated him. Klaproth 
thinks that cheese should be understood ; and M. de Rosny, who 
has translated from the Japanese an abridged reproduction of 
this notice regarding Fu-sang, says that the inhabitants made 
creamy dishes from the milk of their domesticated hinds. I 
have preferred to leave the expression somewhat vague, since it 
can not be determined just what was meant by the character 
used in the original. 

The version of the Encyclopaedia, Ku-ldn-tu-shu-tsi-ching, 
cited above, offers the variation, " They have the pears of the 
fu-sang tree," etc., instead of the reading in our text, " They 
gather the red pears, which are preserved for an entire year." 

In the sentence, reading, " They also have to pu-tao " (many 
grapes), de Guignes translates the characters ^ ^ ^, to pu-tao, 
" a great quantity of iris-plants and peaches," by giving their 
isolated value to the characters pu and tao, and by giving to 
the first i^pu, reeds) a signification which is exceptional, to say 
the least. He could not have been ignorant that the compound 
pu-tao signified grapes ; but he also knew that the word, in re- 
cent times at least, demands a different orthography. Klaproth 
has asserted that the two characters of the expression pic-tao, 
employed by 3Ia Tioan-Un, following the " History of the Liang 
Dynasty," are nothing but the old form of the orthography more 
recently adopted. It has, moreover, been established that these 
characters are merely used to render jDhonetically in Chinese a 
word of foreign origin ; and this makes the ideography of their 
composition of less importance than it would otherwise be. I 
have felt myself compelled to adopt this view; but it is indeed 
surprising to see Klaproth seek, in the existence of the vine in 
Fu-sang, to find an argument for affirming that that country 
could not be America ; as if the Scandinavians had not given to 
just this land of North America, where they landed, a name 



212 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

which was suggested by the abundance of wild vines which they 
found. Neumann has preferred to follow the opinion of de Guig- 
nes in regard to translating the characters pu-tao separately, 
instead of as a compound. He renders the phrase, " apples and 
rushes yrom which the inhabitants make mats.'''' This last state- 
ment is in all respects a more-than-free translation, since the 
phrase in italics does not occur in the text, and the word tao 
should not have the meaning of apple — the fruit of which the 
Latin name is malum {jyersicum). 

The version of Ku-hin-tu-shu-tsi-ching offers quite an impor- 
tant variation in the phrase relating to the image that is set up 
on the death of a member of the family. In place of g^ :^ ^l^ f^, 
" the image of a spirit is set iip,^'' that version reads, g^ M i!^ 
%^ \%y that is to say, " the image of the sjnrit which represents 
the soul of the deceased is set up" or exposed. It is remarkable 
that this custom has existed among the Chinese from a great 
antiquity, as may be read in the chapter Ou-tse-chi-ko of the 
Shu-king. Klaproth made the translation from the version of 
Ma Twan-lin, and Neumann from that of the Ku-hin-tu-shu- 
tsi-ching, which accounts for their difference in the rendering of 
this passage. But neither of these two scholars appears to me to 
have correctly expressed the letter and spirit of the Chinese text 
in the interpretation of the complementary member of the 
phrase, which immediately follows: ^ 5^ ^ ^, literally, '■'■Morn- 
ing and night, prostrations are made and ohlations offered.''^ 
Klaproth says, " Prayers are addressed (to the images of the 
spirits) morning and night" ; and Neumann, "They (the relatives 
of the deceased) remain from morning to night absorbed in 
prayer before the image of the spirit of the dead." ^, ^:)a^ {to 
salute, to prostrate one's self), and ^, tien {to offer oblations or 
libations to spirits), are expressions which do not convey, other- 
wise than indirectly, the idea of addressing prayers, and the 
meaning of the author may be altered, in an account of this na- 
ture, by modifying thus the expressions which he uses. 

As to the country from which the Buddhist priests came, JTi- 
2)in, j^j ^, Klaproth writes, in parenthesis, Cophene. The author 
of the Japanese Encyclopaedia, San-sai-dzou-ye, from which M. de 
Rosny extracted and translated an abridgment of Hoei Shift's 
account, adds in a note, after the word Ki-pin, " Ki-piti is one 
of the western countries {Si-yu) ; it is San-ma-cell-kan (Samar- 



D'HERVEY'S NOTES. 213 

cand)." Mr. Leland says, "The land of Ki-pin, the ancient 
Kophen, is now called Bokhara, the country of Samarcand. 
Samarcand, at the times of which we are speaking, was one of 
the great strongholds of Buddhism." 

The nature of the facts reported in regard to the " Kingdom 
of Women " has seiTcd for an argument to impeach the veracity 
of Hoei Shin ; but it is impossible to fail to distinguish between 
the account of this bonze concerning Fu-sang, a country in which 
he had resided, and his story about a Kingdom of Women, of 
which he knew nothing himself but the marvelous tales which he 
had heard related. It may be remarked that all the ancient 
nations have had some tradition of Amazons, or kingdoms of 
women; and M. d'Eichthal has made the curious fact known that 
entire tribes of North America have borne the name of " women " 
as a national name. It may also be noted that the Chinese au- 
thors mention several kingdoms ofwom^en, entirely distinct from 
each other, which fact arose, without doubt, because the Chinese, 
among whom the women lived retired in the inner apartments, 
without playing any active part in public life, would naturally 
give the appellation of Kingdom of Women to those countries of 
which the manners contrasted with those of the " Middle King- 
dom " in this respect. Those which have been mentioned above 
are situated to the west of China. The Long-wei-pi-sJiu speaks 
of as many as ten, and in the notice which we translate here the 
Wen-hien-tong-Jcao mentions two which should not be confounded. 
Finally, under the name of ;^ A ^) Niu-jin-houe, an insignifi- 
cant variation, the Encyclopjedia San-tsai-tu-hoei, published in 
the Ming dynasty, speaks also of an island in the South Sea 
where the women showed themselves in force and made prison- 
ers of almost all the sailors of a Chinese vessel which winds 
and tempests had driven upon that distant shore. 

The expression which I render, " These islanders fed upon 
small legumes," is very difficult to translate by an exact equiva- 
lent, for the botanical classifications of the Chinese are very dif- 
ferent from ours. The Chinese give the name of S, ten, to all 
vegetables having distinct grains enveloped in a pod, shell, or 
husk. De Guignes, while translating this phrase " little beans," 
thought it possible that maize might be meant. 

The short notice which follows, regarding the country of 
Wen-shin, or of " Tattooed Bodies," ^"" does not vary, except by 



214 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

a few different readings, from the account contained in the por- 
tion of the JVan-sse, or " Annals of the South," inserted in my 
article on Japan/"^ 3Ia Twati-lin has, however, suppressed here 
the closing sentence concerning the punishment of criminals, 
and the trials to which they were subjected. De Guignes and 
Klaproth have thought that this country of Wen-shin might be 
the island of Jesso. Neumann, who places the kingdom of Ta- 
han in the peninsula of Alaska, thinks that the Wen-shin inhab- 
ited the Aleutian Islands. This last opinion appears very diffi- 
cult to reconcile with the account, that is given farther on, of the 
abundance of provisions among the Wen-shin, and of the sumpt- 
uous palace of their king. In the " Chinese Recorder " '" Dr. 
Bretschneider wrote : " Wen-shen, the country in which the peo- 
ple tattoo themselves, lies 7,000 U northeast from Japan. The 
inhabitants make large lines upon their bodies, and especially 
upon their faces. By a stretch of the imagination we might 
suppose North American Red Indians to be here meant. It is 
known, however, that the Japanese have also the habit of tattoo- 
ing themselves." Without daring to attempt to decide the ques- 
tion of the identification of the country of Wen-shin, I will call 
attention to the following paragraph regarding Ta-han, or rather 
regarding the two different countries of that name. It will be 
seen that the manners of the people of Ta-han of the East were 
similar to those of the inhabitants of Wen-shin, and that there 
were also affinities between the people of this land and those of 
Fki-sang, which therefore seem to show a relationship between 
the three nations. 

The name of the country of Ta-han is too extraordinary in 
itself not to excite attention. Ta-han (;^ ;^) signifies literally 
" Great Chinese " {han, Chinese, vir fortis), and Ta-han-Jcicoh, 
" Kingdom of the Great Chinese," or " Great Chinese Kingdom," 
which de Guignes attempted to explain as follows : " That part 
of Siberia called Kamtchatka is the region which the Japanese 
call Ohu-yeso, or ' Upper Jesso.' They place it upon their maps 
to the north of Jesso, and represent it as being twice as large as 
China, and extending much farther to the east than the eastern 
shore of Japan. This is the country which the Chinese have 
named Ta-han, which may signify ' as large as China,' a name 
which corresponds with the extent of the country, and to the 
idea which the Japanese have given us of it." Neumann, on the 



D'HERVEY'S NOTES. 215 

contrary, who locates Ta-han in the peninsula of Alaska, sup- 
poses that the Chinese have called this country Great China, or 
a great country comparable to China, because they had knowl- 
edge of the vast continent which exists beyond it. These two 
explanations are ingenious, without doubt ; but we find another, 
much simpler, in the Chinese Encyclopaedia Yuen-kien-lui-han, 
regarding at least one of the two countries called Ta-han of 
which that work makes mention. The Yuen-Tcien-lui-han de- 
serves to be carefully examined, since it may give proof of the 
correctness of Dr. Neumann as to the identification of the coun- 
try of Ta-han situated on the route to Fu-sang, and at the 
same time confirm the assertion of de Guignes as to the kingdom 
of Ta-han situated in Kamtchatka or somewhere else in Eastern 
Siberia, as MM. Perez and Bretschneider have thought. Neu- 
mann has, in support of his opinion, the express statement of 
Li-yen and of Ma Twan-Un, that the Ta-han at which vessels 
touched on the way to Fu-sang was an Oriental country, situated 
to the east, and not to the north, of Wen-shin. De Guignes, on 
his side, produces a very precise account of the route which Chi- 
nese travelers followed when they went by land to the country 
of Ta-han, an itinerary which can not be disputed. Here is what 
we read in the Encyclopaedia Yuen-Jcien-lui-han — First : Kiuen 
231, fol. 46 : " Tahan op the East. — This kingdom is to the east 
of that of the Wen-shin more than 5,000 li. Its people have no 
arms and do not wage war. Their manners are the same as 
those of the Wen-shin, but their language is different " (exactly 
the same notice as that which the Wen-hien-tong-Jcao gives us). 
Second : Kiuen 241, fol. 10 : " Tahan of the North.— We read 
in the Sing-tang-shic (' Supplement to the History of the Tang Dy- 
nasty ' — a work published in the eleventh century of our era by 
imperial order) : The Ta-han (of the north) live to the north of 
the kingdom of Kio, or Kiai. They raise many sheep and horses. 
The men of this kingdom are robust and of a great height, from 
which fact the name Ta-han (' Great Chinese,' or, in common 
language, ' Tall Fellows ') is derived. They are neighbours of 
the Ke-kia-sse (natives who live upon the shore of the lake Pe- 
hai, or Baikal). In former times they had no relations with the 
empire (of China), but in the years ching-kuan and yong-hoei 
(627-655) embassadors from their nation came once or twice 
offering horses and martens' furs as tribute." The kingdom of 



216 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

K^io, or Kiai, is situated 500 li to the northeast of the territory 
of the Pa-ye-Jcu, one of the most easterly tribes of the great 
nation of the Hoei-lie (Ouigours), which extends as far as the 
country of the Shi-wei, or She-goei, occupying the northeast- 
ern part of Siberia. These last natives of Ta-han (whom Ma 
Twan-Un calls Ta-mo, and whom he also classed among the 
nations of the north) are those whom de Guignes thought to 
be located in Kamtchatka ; but the immediate consequence of 
this verification is to make it impossible to find a place in 
Asia for the " Ta-han of the East,'''' in which we are solely in- 
terested. None of the scholars who have studied this ques- 
tion have suspected the existence of two countries called Ta- 
han J and this fact has compelled them to make great efforts 
to bring into agreement the accounts of the two routes to Ta- 
han, one by land and the other by water, which led, in fact, to 
two difi'erent countries. Neumann, whose judgment seems the 
least reliable, has therefore very probably been the most in- 
spired. Although the notice of Tahan of the East is very short, 
it contains the proof of a characteristic and very extraordinary 
fact, of which the importance should not be overlooked. The 
people of Ta-han, we are told, have no arms and know nothing 
of war. This fact would be inexjilicable regarding a tribe of 
upper Asia, exposed to the attacks of the ferocious and belliger- 
ent nations whom they had upon their frontiers, and it reveals 
a civilization analogous to that of the people of Fu-sang, to 
whom the same peculiarity is attributed. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

d'hervey's appendix. 

Difference between Hod Skill's story and other Chinese accounts — An earlier 
knowledge of Fiisang — The poem named the Li-sao — The Shan-hai-king — 
The account of Tong-fang-so — The immense size of the country — The burn- 
ing of books in China — The origin of the Chinese — The writer Kuan-mei — 
The arrival of Hoei Shin in 499 — The civil war then raging — The delay in 
obtaining an imperial audience — The " History of the Four Lords of the Liang 
Dynasty " — An envoy from Fu-sang — The presents offered by him — Yellow silk 
— A semi-transparent mirror — This envoy was Hoei Shin — The stories told 
by Yu-lcie — The silk found upon the fu-sang tree — The palace of the king — 
The Kingdom of Women — Serpent-husbands — The Smoking Mountain — The 
Black Valley — The animals of the country — The amusement of the courtiers 
— The poem Tong-hing-fu — The route to Fu-sang — Fu-sang east of Japan — 
Lieu-kuci — The direction of the route. 

Appendix to the Account regarding Fu-sang — hy the Marquis 
d''Hervey de Saint-Denys.^^ 

The relation of the bonze Hoei Shin has, for more than a 
century, served as the foundation for all that has been written 
for the purpose of attempting to decide the question whether 
Fa-sang was America or not. This account, so clear and pre- 
cise, possessed, in the eyes of the Chinese, a character of authen- 
ticity which distinguished it from quite a large number of other 
documents relating to Fu-sang^ which were furnished by authors 
with more or less inclination for the marvelous. Ma Twan-lin 
contented himself, for this reason, with merely repeating it with- 
out adding anything to it. Ma Twan-lin never undertook to 
unite in his accounts all that the Chinese authors had related 
regarding the subject of his work, but confined himself to men- 
tioning only what appeared to him to be the most worthy of 
credit. The merit of his compilation, taken as a whole, results 
mainly from this work of elimination, accomplished by judicious 



218 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

criticism. But if it is attempted to clear up an obscure point by 
means of the comparison of different accounts and by investiga- 
tions of all kinds, the most fabulous stories, and little points, ap- 
parently the most trivial, sometimes contain the clew to the 
wished-for knowledge. Hence it appears that, in an effort to 
decide as to the true location of Fu-sang, the contrary method 
should be followed and no means of information should be neg- 
lected. I have, therefore, grouped here all the documents which 
I have been able to collect relating to this interesting question ; 
some much anterior to Hoei Skill's account, and others forming, 
to a certain extent, the corollary of the declarations of this 
priest. 

The first show that, if we admit it to be a fact that Buddhist 
missionaries of the fifth century visited America, this is far from 
proving that they were the first who discovered the country ; 
the second permit us to detect the origin of the introduction of 
supernatural elements into the authentic account of the bonze 
Hoei Shin, and justify Ma Twan-lin in adhering to the strict 
letter of Hoei Shhi's account, and in declining to leave it for a 
comparison of the different statements, by means of which the 
true elements of these accounts might, some day, be separated 
from the false. 

It is proved that the idea of the existence of a great country, 
covered with vast forests made up of a particular species of trees 
called fu-sang trees, and situated beyond the eastern seas, was 
an old tradition, even to the Chinese authors of the third century 
before our era, this fact being attested by the Li-sao. Kixi- 
yuen, the author of this celebrated poem, traveled in thought to 
the four extremities of the universe. In the north he perceived 
the land of long days and long nights ; in the south the bound- 
less sea attracted his attention ; in the west he perceived the sun 
descend and sink in a lake, which has been supposed to be Lake 
Tingry, or the Caspian Sea ; and, finally, in the east — in spite of 
the immensity of the Pacific Ocean, and, in spite of the thought, 
which would naturally occur to him, that the sun also rose from 
the midst of the waters — he caught a glimpse of distant shores 
receiving the first gleams of the dawn. It is in a valley in a 
land shaded by the fu-sang tree that he places the limits of the 
extreme east. The Shan-hai-hing, a work of uncertain date, but 
of incontestable antiquity, contains an analogous reference to 



D'lIERVEY'S APPENDIX. 219 

this land. An author, almost contemporaneous with Km-yuen, 
Tong-fang-so (whose text is supposed to have suffered some al- 
terations, but at an epoch much anterior to that of Soei Shin), 
expresses himself thus : " At the east of the Eastern Sea, the 
shores of the country of Fii-sang are found. If, after landing 
upon these shores, the journey is continued by land toward the 
east for a distance often thousand U, a sea of a blue colour {pi- 
hai) is reached, vast, immense, and boundless. The country of 
Fu-sang extends ten thousand U upon each of its sides. It con- 
tains the palace of Tai-chin-tong-wang-fu (the God who Presides 
over the East). Great forests are found, filled with trees of 
which the leaves are similar to those of the mulberry, while the 
general appearance of the trees is similar to that of those which 
are called chin (certain coniferous trees). They attain a height 
of several times ten thousand cubits, and it takes two thousand 
people to reach their arms around one of them. These trees 
grow two and two from common roots, and mutually svistain 
each other ; hence their name oi fu-sang {sese sustinentes mori — 
mulberry-trees which sustain each other). Although they grow 
tall and straight, like the conifers, their leaves and their fruit 
are similar to those of the mulberry of China. The fruit, of 
exquisite flavour and of reddish colour, appears but very rarely, 
the tree which jDroduces it bearing it but once in nine thousand 
years. The anchorites who eat the fruit become of the colour of 
gold, and acquire the power of hovering in celestial space." 

The exaggeration of the proportions of the fu-sang tree is 
evidently nothing but hyperbole ; but it may be remarked that 
this tree is described as resembling the mulberry or the tong tree 
in its leaves, and the chiyi tree in its form ; this last being a spe- 
cies of conifer of which the wood is used in the manufacture of 
arrows. This description, although not having great botanical 
precision, reminds one involuntarily of the gigantic Wellingtonia 
of California, which may be the last remains of an immense 
forest.* 

* The Mexicans noticed a resemblance between the century-plant, or agave (the 
plant which Hwni Sh&n called the fu-sang tree), and the conifers ; for they called 
the fir-tree ^^^ "oya-metl," '''^ a terra meaning the false or counterfeit agave ; and, 
in fact, the flowering-stalk of the century-plant — often forty feet in height and 
eight inches in diameter at the base — with its numerous branches of flowers, 
springing out, almost horizontally, from its upper half, is very similar in form 
and general appearance to a fir or pine tree. — E. P. V. 



220 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The indication of a breadth of ten thousand li for the country 
of Fii-sang shows that it was a true continent ; and, if we do 
.not believe that this curious account of another ocean, found to 
the east, beyond the vast territory, should be applied to the At- 
lantic, it still may be thought that America was better known to 
the Chinese before the Christian era than it could be even from 
the narration of Hoei Shin himself. In any case, the Buddhist 
missionaries who again found the route to Fu-sang were certainly 
guided in their voyage by the light of old traditions. 

I ventured the following observations when publishing my 
translation of the Li-saOy some years ago : 

"The general burning of books, two hundred and thirteen 
years before our era, was far from being as destructive as has 
been imagined ; but still it caused a sensible diminution of the 
sum of acquired knowledge. A great number of texts were 
preserved in the memory of scholars or by the secretion of manu- 
scripts, and were thus finally restored, but many others were lost 
or altered. Moreover, the Chinese people, at the same time that 
they raised the great wall, isolated themselves in other ways, in 
order to preserve their unity. No surprise should therefore be 
felt at finding that the Chinese in very ancient times were pos- 
sessed of ideas more just and extensive, regarding a multitude 
of subjects, than the Chinese of the following centuries; bo that, 
to reach reliable accounts, it is necessary to go back as far as 
possible into that antiquity which, perhaps, there is good reason 
for vaunting so highly. 

" I have sometimes thought that a great mystery might be 
concealed in the origin of the old Chinese with black hair, who 
arrived from the north (it is not known from what country) at 
the banks of the Yellow River — not as primitive men, but as the 
representatives of a ripened civilization — who avoided any inter- 
mixture with the native population, and who always turned 
themselves toward their father-land to seek for light. If it 
should be unquestionably proved that Fu-sang is indeed Ameri- 
ca, and if the first ideas which the Chinese had of that region 
should appear lost in the most remote antiquity, would not a 
strange enigma be presented to us for solution ? " 

Mr. Leland's book has shown me that the thought which dic- 
tated these lines has also presented itself to several scholars 
who have made a specialty of the study of subjects relating to 



D'HERVEY'S APPENDIX. 221 

America ; and tbe Long-wei-pi-shu cites an opinion of the Bud- 
dhist writer Kuan-mei^ which demonstrates to what great an- 
tiquity some idea of the existence of Fu-sang went back among 
the Chinese, if their statements on the subject are to be believed: 
" It is in Fu-sang that Hwang-tVs astronomers resided (who were 
charged with the observation of the rising sun) ", says Kuan-mei. 
" In the first year yong-yuen, of the Tsi dynasty, there was a 
bonze named Hoei iShin, who arrived from that country, and 
who made it known" (literally, by whose narration it commenced 
to be known — k., I, fol. 10), an expression which should be un- 
derstood here merely as referring to a knowledge renewed after 
the lapse of centuries. Ilwang-ti is the first sovereign of the 
times reputed historical, and the first cycle of the Chinese com- 
menced in his reign, in the twenty-seventh century before our 
era. "We may assuredly entertain a doubt as to whether the 
astronomers of this celebrated emperor, to whom the Chinese 
attribute the invention of the astronomical globe and the insti- 
tution of their cycle, established an observatory in Fu-sang. 
Nevertheless, I believe the fact to be established that there was 
some account of Fu-sang current among the Chinese long before 
the time of Hoei Shin, and this is what I first proposed to make 
evident. 

Let us now examine the circumstances under which Hoei 
Shin's report was made, and attempt to decide what connection 
there was between this bonze and the five Buddhist priests who 
went to Fu-sang in 458 ; why Hoei Shiti ascended the Grand 
Kiang to King-cheu, instead of stopping at N'an-Mng, then the 
capital of the empire ; and, finally, consider what should be 
thought of an embassy from Fu-sang, which, according to the 
work entitled Liang-sse-Tcong-Jci (" Memoirs of the Four Lords 
of the Liang Dynasty " ), came to visit the Chinese court in the 
years tien-kien, which commenced in the year 502, that is to say, 
at an epoch very near to that of the arrival of Hoei Shin— a co- 
incidence which should not be overlooked. We will finally con- 
sider the account of the route to Fi-sang as given by the histo- 
rian Li-yen, and the light furnished in this respect by several 
passages of Ma Twan-lin, hitherto inedited. 

We read in the Ku-hin-tu-shu-tsi-ching : " In the time of 
Tong-hoen-heu, the first year yong-yuen (499), the bonze of the 
kingdom of Fu-sang, named Hoei Shin, came to China. Never- 



222 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

theless, the official annals of the Tsi dynasty make no mention of 
him, and it is the books of the Liang dynasty which contain the 
account of lloei Shin regarding Fu-sang, in a section devoted to 
the eastern countries." 

The year 499, designated as the date of the arrival of Hoei 
SJii)i upon the banks of the Kiang, was a year of civil war, which 
preceded the downfall of the Tsi dynasty, and during which that 
shadow of an emperor, called Tong-hoen-heu (" Prince of the Dis- 
orders of the East "), remained a prisoner in his palace, besieged 
by his own brother. This brother was declared " Protector of the 
Empire," and he resided at the same city of King-cheu, to which 
we see that Soei Shin repaired. This brother soon mounted the 
throne, and was almost immediately deposed by the founder of 
the Liang dynasty, known by the name of Liang Wu-ti, in the 
first month of the year 502. Now, if we suppose that IToei Shin 
came from Fu-sang and intended to visit the emperor of 
China — a favour which could never be obtained except after long 
entreaties — these circumstances explain why it was that he was 
compelled to remain at King-cheu, until the complete overthrow 
of the Tsi dynasty, without being able to obtain an imperial 
audience. The accession of Liang Wu-ti, a prince who was a 
believer in the Buddhist religion, must, on the contrary, have 
insured him a favourable reception by the new ruler of the empire. 

I now come to the statements of the Liang -sse-hong-Tci, and 
am convinced that others, like myself, will be struck by the vivid 
light which they throw upon the story. The four princes, or 
feudal lords, of whom the book contains the memoirs, were 
named Ho-tchin* Yu-Jcie, Sho-tuan, and Chang-Jci. Nothing is 
said as to how they were connected with one another ; but their 
memoirs tell us that in the years tien-kien, that is to say, in the 
first years of the reign of Liang Wu-ti, an envoy from the 
kingdom of Fa-sang presented himself, and, having offered to 
the emperor divers objects of his country, the emperor charged 
Yu-hie to interrogate him regarding the customs and the produc- 
tions of Fu-sang, the history of the kingdom, its cities, its riv- 
ers, its mountains, etc., as was the custom in similar cases when- 
ever a foreign embassador visited the court. 

* In the " Ethnography," edited by the Mai'quis d'Horvey de Saint-Denys, this 
name is written Hoei-tchin ; while in the same author's " Memoir " it is given as 
Ho-tchhi, The Marquis d'llervey states that this last form is correct. — E. P. V. 



D'HERVEY'S APPENDIX. 223 

" The envoy from Fki-sang wept, and responded with respect- 
ful ardour," says the text — a singular phrase, which appears to 
give the idea of an old man affected at finding himself again in 
his native land after long years of absence. " The offering 
which he presented consisted principally of three hundred pounds 
of yellow silk, spun by the silk- worm of the fu-sang tree, and of 
an extraordinary strength. The emperor had an incense-burner 
of massive gold, of a weight of fifty kin. [The Jci7i weighs a 
little more than 600 grammes.] This could be lifted and held 
suspended by six of these threads without breaking them. There 
was also among the presents offered to the emperor a sort of 
semi-transparent precious stone, cut in the form of a mirror, and 
of the circumference of more than a foot. In observing the sun 
by reflection by means of this stone, the palace which the sun 
contains appeared very distinctly." (Mention of these mirrors 
has been made in the " Notes and Queries," and Mr. Leland pre- 
sents some very remarkable observations upon this subject. 
"Discovery of America," p. 184.) 

There is but little probability that Soei Shin was a native of 
Fii-sang, although all the texts agree in calling him " a bonze of 
that country." It may be suspected that he had left China, 
when very young, in company with the five priests of Ki-pin. 
This can not be considered as anything more than a conjecture ; 
but that which appears to me to be beyond doubt is, that Soei 
Shin and the envoy from Fu-sang, the bearer of the presents 
offered to the emperor Wu-ti, were one and the same person. 
To the presumption which is raised by the agreement of the 
dates, and the circumstances, as mentioned above, should be 
added the convincing fact that the prince Yu-kie, when speaking 
at length of Fu-sang and other regions of the extreme east, as is 
recorded in the Liang-sse-kong-ki, sometimes, as we shall see, 
based his declarations upon the statements of the envoy whom 
he had had the charge of interrogating, and sometimes upon the 
relation given by Hoei Shin, without indicating that there was 
any difference between the two sources of his information. It is 
here, moreover, that we find the source of all the extravagancies 
which have been mixed with Hoei Shines narration, and which 
have resulted in casting suspicion upon even his simplest state- 
ments. 

The account quoted by Ma Twan-lin was probably the official 



224 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

record of the statements made by Hoei Shin, in his quality of 
envoy of the kingdom of Fu-sang, in answer to the questions of 
Yu-Jcie, who was delegated for the purpose by the emperor. 
The compilation of this account is similar to that of a great num- 
ber of analogous documents contained in the notices of the Wen- 
hien-tong-kao. Nothing is found which approaches the domain of 
fable, any more than there is in the description of the presents 
offered to the emperor, and the precision of the details gives to 
the whole an appearance of truth which can not be mistaken; but 
the lord Yu-Jcie wished to amuse the court in regard to his con- 
ferences with a person who had excited such general curiosity. 

Let us return to the study of the Liang-sse-kong-ki. The 
truth will thus be established. 

" One day, when the attendants at court were amusing them- 
selves with stories of foreign countries, the lord Yu-kie took up 
the subject, and spoke in the following terms : 'At the extreme 
east is Fu-sang. Silk-worms are found there which are seven 
feet long and as much as seven inches in circumference. Their 
colour is golden. It takes a year to raise them. On the eighth 
day of the fifth month they spin yellow silk, which is extended 
upon the branches of the fu-sang tree, for they make no cocoons. 
This silk is naturally very weak ; but it is cooked in lye prepared 
from the ashes of the wood of the fu-sang, and thus acquires such 
strength that four threads twisted together are sufficient to raise 
a weight of thirty Chinese pounds. The eggs of these silk- 
worms are as large as swallow's eggs. Some were taken to luio- 
kiu-li (Corea) ; but the voyage injured them, so that nothing 
issued from them but silk-worms as small as those of China. 

" ' The palace of the king is surrounded by walls of crystal, 
which appear clearly before daylight ; but the walls become 
quite invisible during an eclipse of the moon.' 

" The lord Yu-kie said besides : ' At the northwest, about ten 
thousand li, there exists a Kingdom of Women, who take serpents 
for husbands. Moreover, these reptiles are inoffensive. They 
live in holes, while their wives or concubines live in houses 
and palaces, and exercise all the cares of state. In this king- 
dom there are no books, and they know nothing of the art 
of writing. They believe firmly in the efficacy of certain forms 
of prayers or maledictions. The women who act uprightly pro- 
long their lives, and those who swerve from the right are imme- 



D'HERVEY'S APPENDIX. 22^ 

diately cut off. The worship of spirits imposes laws that none 
dare to violate. To the south of Ho-cheu (the Island of Fire) 
[probably >/\^, hioo, "fire," and jlj, c/iet<, " an island or district"], 
situated to the south of this country, is the mountain Yen-kuen 
(Burning Mountain) [probably ;I;|3, ye,n^ "smoke," and ^, hioun, 
" a peak, a high mountain "], the inhabitants of which eat locusts, 
crabs, and hairy serpents, to preserve themselves from the heat. 
In this land of Ho-cheu, the ho-mu (trees of fire) [probably 
>/l^, hioo, " fire," and ^, muh, " wood, a tree "] grow ; their bark 
furnishes a solid tissue. Upon the summit of the mountain Yen- 
Jcuen there live j^re rats {ho-s/iu) [probably >/l^, hwo, "fire," 
and ^,s/ui, "a rat, mouse, weasel, squirrel, or similar animal "], 
the hair of which serves also for the fabrication of an incombus- 
tible stuff, which is cleansed by fire instead of by water. To the 
north of this Kingdom of Women is the Black Valley [Heko) 
[probably M, hoJi, "black," and kuh, /^, "a ravine, gully, gorge, 
canon "], and north of the Black Valley are mountains so high 
that they reach to the heavens. Snow covers them all the year. 
The sun does not show itself there at all. It is there, it is said, 
that the dragon Clio-long (the Luminous Dragon) resides. [Prob- 
ably j^, chuh, " an illumination, a torch, to illumine," and f|, 
lunfj, " a dragon."] At the west is a fountain that inebriates, 
and has the taste of wine. In these regions there is also found 
a sea of varnish, of which the waves dye black the feathers and 
furs that are dipped in them, and another sea of the colour of 
milk. The territory surrounded by these natural marvels is of 
great extent and extremely fertile. Dogs, ducks, and horses of 
a great height live in it, and, finally, birds which produce human 
beings. The males born of these birds do not live. The daugh- 
ters only are raised with care by their fathers, who carry them 
with their beaks or upon their wings. As soon as they commence 
to walk, they become mistresses of themselves. They are all of 
remarkable beauty and very hospitable, but they die before 
reaching the age of thirty years. 

" * The rabbits of this country are white and as large as 
horses, their hair being a foot long. The sables are as large as 
wolves. Their hair is black and of extraordinary thickness.' 

" The attendants of the court were much amused at these 
stories. They all laughed and clapped their hands, and said 
that better stories had never been told. 

15 



226 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

" A minister of the emperor, named Wang-yun, interrupted 
Yu-Jcie with this bantering objection : ' If we believe the official 
accounts which have been collected regarding the Kingdom of 
Women, situated to the west of the country of Tsan-yai and to 
the south of the Kingdom of Dogs {Keii-Tcicoh), it is merely in- 
habited by barbarians of the race of the Kiang-jong, who have 
a woman as their sovereign ; but there has never been any ques- 
tion of serpents filling the office of husbands. How do you ac- 
count for that ? ' Yu-kie responded with pleasantry with a new 
explosion of extravagancies, in the midst of which there appeared 
here and there a true idea, burlesqued for diversion." 

This curious fi*agment shows that the Chinese of the sixth 
century were not as credulous as might be believed ; that they 
knew how to distinguish between the true and improbable, and 
that the extravagancies of their story-tellers, at which they were 
the first to laugh, does not diminish the merit of the writers that 
they respected. 

The Ku-Mn-tu-shu-tsi-ching is very explicit in this respect ; 
citing several poets who in their works make allusions to Fu- 
sang, it makes the following statement : " We read in the poem 
entitled Tong-hing-fxi, ' I ascended to the source of day and thus 
arrived at Fu-sang^ Hwai-nan-tse has written, * The sun issues 
from the valley Yang-Tco (the Luminous Valley) [probably ^, 
yang, "the rising sun," and ^, kuh, "a ravine, valley, gully"],* 
and rises in the midst of the fu-sang trees.' Yang-kiang says, 
* Beyond the great sea is Fu-sang,^ a.ud Zi-tai-pe writes, 'At the 
extreme west is the Jo-mo tree ; at the extreme east, the fu~sang 
tree.'" "From all this," continues the book from which we 
cite, " it follows that Fu-sang lies to the east of China. Some 
understand that the sun really comes out of this country, or that 
Fu-sang is the sun itself ; but this is mere ignorance on their 
part. When it is said that the sun comes forth from Fu-sang, 
it simply means that the sun rises in the extreme east." 

I will conclude with some remarks regarding the description 
of the route from China to Fu-sang, given by the historian Li- 
yen, who lived at the beginning of the seventh century of our 
era, and regarding the conjectures to which this itinerary has 

* Williams's "Chinese Dictionary," p. 1071, defines "Yang-kuh," "the valley 
of sunrise in the extreme east, probably in Corea, where Yao worshiped the sun 
at the vernal equinox." 



D'HERVEY'S APPENDIX. 227 

given rise. According to Li-yen^ the route sets out from the 
coast of Leao-tong, skirts along Japan, touches at the country of 
the Wen-shin, and then reaches the kingdom of Ta-han, from 
which the route to Fu-sang is quite direct, the distance being 
almost equal to the entire distance already traveled. The total 
length of the journey is about 44,000 li, and each of the interme- 
diate distances is specified. The length of the li can not serve as 
the basis for any certain calculation as to the exact distance, be- 
cause of the variations which it has suffered. The inductive 
labours of the scholars, who have attempted to determine the situ- 
ation of Fu-scmg from the statements of Li-yen, have heretofore 
consisted in proceeding from the known to the unknown, by at- 
tempting to determine the length of the li from its value in the 
distance between Leao-tong and Japan, so as to obtain a propor- 
tionate measure which would furnish the means for the identifi- 
cation of the more distant regions designated by the names of 
'Wen-shin, Ta-han, and Fu-sang. This very reasonable method 
meets two great difficulties in its practice — one resulting from 
the fact that the particular point in Japan to which the measure 
was taken is not clearly indicated ; and the other from the fact 
that the estimate of distances by sea in a voyage of this kind can 
only be approximate. Thus, de Guignes and Neumann, who 
agree in placing the country of Wen-shin in Jesso, have differed 
regarding the identification of Ta-han, which the first thinks to 
be in Kamtchatka, and the second upon the peninsula of Alaska, 
and this has resulted in their placing Fu-sang more or less to 
the south. But neither of these two scholars, nor M. d'Eichthal, 
the Chevalier de Paravey, M. Jose Perez, or Mr. Leland, has 
hesitated to acknowledge that Fu-sang must be sought upon the 
American Continent. I do not hesitate to declare that it seems 
to me impossible to seek elsewhere for a region of a thousand 
leagues in extent, situated beyond the great ocean, to the east of 
Japan, and the new documents which I have been permitted to 
collect attest this to be its true location. 

The mention regarding the extent of Fu-sang is in the frag- 
ment of the Shi-chetc-ki, cited above ; that of the situation of 
Fu-sang to the east of Japan is found in the preface of the 
" Ethnography of the Eastern Nations," by Ma Twan-lin, where 
it is distinctly said, "Japan is situated directly to the east of 
China, and Fu-sang is situated directly to the east of Japan " 



228 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

{Kiuen, 324, fol. 1, line 6). Ma Twan-lin adds that about thirty 
thousand li separate China from this country of the extreme 
east ; an assertion which does not in any way contradict the 
estimate of forty thousand li made by Li-yen, since the distance 
here spoken of is that in a direct line, and not the distance by a 
roundabout route. 

This positive statement of Ma Twan-lin's would be sufficient 
to destroy the singular hypothesis of Klaproth, who imagined 
that the Chinese had confounded Japan with Fu-sang, if this 
paradoxical theory did not crumble of itself at all points, as it is 
easy to demonstrate that it does. 

Klaproth does not dispute either the sincerity of the state- 
ments of Hoei Shin, or the veracity of the Chineses writers who 
have spoken of Fu-sang, and confines himself to commenting 
upon their statements from his point of view. The best way of 
exposing his attempted refutation of de Guignes's memoir is to 
show how he has proceeded in his intei'pretation of the Chinese 
authors. 

The Prussian scholar commences by admitting, with de 
Guignes, that the country of Wen-shin must be Jesso, so that 
he is obliged to accept as the length of the li, in the time of the 
historian Li-yen, a measure proportionate to the number of li 
which this writer concedes between Leao-tong and the island of 
Jesso. Then, immediately, in order to bring the remainder of 
the itinerary into accordance with his fancy, he supposes the li 
to be less than half as long, and so small that it can not be ap- 
plied to any of the measures of distance indicated by the Chinese 
geographers of any epoch. M. d'Eichthal has described this 
contradiction very clearly; but that which he has not said is, that, 
in order to place Ta-han in the island of Karafto, or Tarakai, 
the same land according to him as Lieu-Tcnei, Klaproth ignores 
or pretends to be ignorant, on the one side, that the land of 
Lieu-Tcuei is described by the Chinese books as a peninsula and 
not as an island i^'' Long-wei-pi-shu^'' Kiuen, 4, fol. 7; "Wen- 
hien-tong-hao^'' Kiuen, 347, fol. 4), and, on the other side, that 
the countries of Lieu-Jcuei and Ta-han are described separately 
in the two works above named, with the important distinction 
that Lieu-huei is described among the regions of the north, and 
Ta-han among those of the east ; this last country being located 
!to theerts^ of the Wen-shin, while Lieu-huei is to their north. 



D'HERVEY'S APPENDIX. 229 

The question of the orientation troubled the scholarly author 
of the " Tableaux de I'Asie " very little, it is true ; and, as the 
direction toward the east, on leaving the island of Karafto, or 
Tarakai, incommoded him, he, in order to arrive at his conclu- 
sion, changed this direction, so j)recisely given by the Chinese 
texts, and, without ceremony, turned it arbitrarily toward the 
south. In such manner was he carried away by his imagination, 
that he concluded by supposing that the Chinese navigators of 
the seventh century thought that they were visiting Fu-sang 
when they landed upon the southeastern coast of Japan — that is 
to say, in a country which had been known to them, and which 
had had constant relations with China, for more than five cent- 
uries. If such reasoning had been published by an Orientalist 
of less reputation than Klaproth, it would be almost superfluous 
to expose it. 

Attention should be called, in conclusion, to the fact that 
Klaproth is the only critic who has opposed the identification of 
Fu-sang with America ; since no attention should be paid to the 
unsupported opinion of those who with closed eyes declare that 
they agree with him. 

Such is the additional information drawn from the examina- 
tion of a number of Chinese authors — ^information which I have 
thought should be added to the notice of Ma Twan-lin. For a 
statement of all that has been published hitherto in European 
languages on the question of Fu-sang, as also for the latest in- 
formation concerning the ethnography of North America, and 
the navigation of the Pacific, Mr. C. G. Leland's book may be 
profitably consulted. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PROFESSOR Williams's argument. 

" Notices of Fu-sang and other Countries lying East of China " — The origin of 
American tribes — The work of H. H. Bancroft— Mr. Leland's book — Ma 
Twan-lin — His " Antiquarian Researches " — Hwui-shin's story — Coph^ne — 
No later accounts of Fu-sang — The titles of the nobility — The ten-year cycle 
— Red pears — The fu-sang tree — No mention of pulque — Brocade — Fables — 
Account of the Shih Chau Ki — The article of the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint- 
Denys — Criticisms thereon — Pang-lai — The distance of Japan and Fu-sang — 
The name Fu-sang sometimes applied to Japan — Mention of the fu-sang tree 
in a Chinese geography— Expeditions sent to search for Fu-sang — Compari- 
son with Swift's "Voyage to Laputa" — The Kingdom of Women — Mention 
by Maundevile and Marco Polo of a land of Amazons — The country of Wan 
Shan — Tattooing — Its existence among the Esquimaux — Quicksilver — Two 
kingdoms of Ta Han — Lieu-kuei and the Lewchew Islands. 

Notices of Fu-sang and Other Countries lying East of China — 
by Professor S. Wells Williams. ^^^^ 

The origin of the various nations and tribes inhabiting the 
American Continent is a question that has attracted the atten- 
tion of antiquarians ever since the discovery of the continent 
four centuries ago. The general designation of " Indians," given 
by Columbus to the people whom he met, shows the notion then 
entertained of their Asiatic origin, not less than his ignorance of 
their true position. Since that time, numerous antiquarians 
have given us their ideas and researches upon this obscure sub- 
ject. Some have combined many scattered facts so as to uphold 
their crude fancies ; while others have formed a theory, and 
then hunted over the continent for facts to prove it. When 
their various works are brought together, comparison only shows 
how little which can lead to a definite conclusion has yet been 
really ascertained. The digest of the most careful of these trav- 
elers, and the candid analysis of the works of antiquarians and 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. 231 

philologists, given by H. H. Bancroft in the fifth volume of his 
laborious work on the " Native Races of the Pacific States " (pp. 
1-136), fully upholds his concluding sentence as to the present 
state of this question : " To all whose investigations are a search 
for truth, darkness covers the origin of the American peoples and 
their primitive history, save for a few centuries preceding the 
conquest. The darkness is lighted up here and there by dim 
rays of conjecture, which only become fixed lights of facts in 
the eyes of antiquarians whose lively imaginations enable them 
to see best in the dark, and whose researches are but a sifting 
_j)ut of supports to a preconceived opinion." 

Since the publication of this work, in 1875, attention has 
been again directed to a hypothesis as to the origin of the na- 
tive races — namely, that America was peopled from China — by 
the issue of Mr. C. G. Leland's book, entitled " Fusang, or the 
Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the Fifth 
Century." Mr. Bancroft had already collected the leading data 
upon this particular point (volume v, pp. 3-4-51), and Mr. Le- 
land adduces no new facts.* He brings together in a conven- 
ient form what he has collected from de Guignes, Neumann, and 
d'Eichthal in favor of his theory ; while he analyzes and criti- 
cises the remarks of Klaproth, Sampson, and Bretschneider 
against it. 

I have thought that a translation of the sections describing 
the lands lying to the east of China, found in the work of Ma 
Twan-lin, would tend to place his notice of Fu-sang in its true 
light, and help us to guess where that country should be looked 
for. This distinguished Chinese author belonged to a literary 
family, and spent his life in collecting and arranging the materials 
for his great work, the Wdn Ilien Tung Kao, or "Antiquarian 
Researches," which was published about the year 1321, by the 
Mongol emperor Jin-tsung, a nephew of Kublai Khan. Ma 
Twan-lin's life was passed amid the troublous times of the con- 
quests of the Mongols, and his father held a high office at the 
court of the emperors of the Sung dynasty at Hangchow. He 
was busily engaged with these labors during the whole period of 
the residence of Marco Polo in China (1275-1295), and their 
deaths probably occurred about the year 1325. 

* Attention has already been called to the fact that an earlier and shorter ar- 
gument by Mr. Lcland preceded Mr. Bancroft's work by many years.— E. P. V. 



232 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The " Antiquarian Researches " now contains 348 chapters 
{kilen), arranged, without any natural sequence, under twenty-five 
different heads, as Chronology, Classics, Religion, Dynasties, etc. 
The last title is called Sz^ I Kao, or "Researches into the Four 
Frontiers." In it are gathered together, in twenty-four chapters, 
all the information that the author could collect respecting for- 
eign kingdoms and peoples. He himself seems never to have 
traveled outside of his own land ; and during the ruthless Avars 
of the Mongols he was probably glad to escape all molestation 
by staying quietly at his home at Po-yang, in Kiangsi province. 
The eight volumes containing these notices of other countries 
must consequently be regarded only as the carefully written 
notes of a retired scholar, who was unable to test their value or 
accuracy by any standard, either of his own personal observation, 
or of the criticisms of those among his acquaintances who had 
gone abroad. The energy and skill of the great Khan, so unlike 
the effete and ignorant rule of the native monarchs at Hang- 
chow, must have developed much mental and physical vigor 
among his subjects. An author like Ma Twan-lin would there- 
fore be stimulated to gather all the information he could, no 
matter whence it came, to enrich his work. His design was 
more like that of Hackluyt orPurchas than that of Rollin or La 
Harpe ; and in carrying it out he has done a good service for 
the literature of his native land. 

In his survey of lands beyond the Middle Kingdom, he com- 
mences on the east, and goes around to the south and west, 
describing each country without much reference to those near it. 
Having no data for ascertaining their distances, size, or relative 
importance, he makes no distinction between islands, peninsulas, 
and continents ; for all such things his countrymen are even 
now just beginning to learn. . . . 

[The first section of Ma Twan-lin's work, translated by 
Professor Williams, is that relating to Hia-i^ the land of the 
"Shrimp Barbarians." These are shown to be the Ainos, and 
it does not seem necessary to copy the account here. Then 
follows his translation of the account regarding Fu-sang, which 
is given elsewhere ; upon which Professor Williams makes the 
following observations :] 

Ma Twan-lin makes no comment on this narrative, nor does 
he tell us whence Hwui-shin got it ; he did not feel obliged to 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMEJ^T. 233 

discuss its veracity, or explain its obscurities. The first impres- 
sion made upon one who reads it, with the idea that Fu-sang lay 
somewhere on the American Continent, is that it proves rather 
too much, judging by what we yet know of the nations and 
tribes who once dwelt there. I do not mean that the notices 
it gives of the houses, un walled cities, curious mode of judging 
prisoners, and mourning customs, could not have applied to the 
natives of Mexico or Peru ; but it has not the air of the narra- 
tive of a man who had actually lived there. It is easy to reply 
that all traces of the people mentioned have been lost, so that 
our present ignorance of their early civilization proves nothing 
either way. Still, this account reads more like the description 
of a land having many things in common with countries well 
known to the speaker and his hearers, but whose few peculiari- 
ties were otherwise worth recording. The shaman Hwui-shin 
may have been one of the five priests who went to Fu-sang 
from Ki-pin only forty years before his arrival at Kingchau, the 
capital of the Tsi dynasty. Ivi-pin is the Chinese name for 
Cophene, a region mentioned by the Buddhist traveler Fa-hien 
(chap, v) under that name, and by Strabo and Pliny as situated 
between Ghazni and Candahar, along the western slopes of 
the Suleiman Mountains, in the upper valleys of the Helmond 
River. These priests had probably traveled far north of China 
in their missionary tour, as described by de Guignes and 
d'Eichthal, and lived in Fu-sang until it had become familiar to 
them. I think that Ma Twan-lin inserts Hwui-shin's account 
next to that of Hia-i, from an idea that both kingdoms lay in 
the same direction. He seems to have found no accounts of a 
later date, and the long interval of seven centuries had furnished 
nothing worth recording about a land so insignificant as Fu- 
sang. We can hardly imagine that such would have been the 
case with a country to be reached by a long sea-voyage, one 
where stupendous mountains, great rivers, well-built cities or 
citadels, and people with black or dark-red complexions, would 
each make a deep impression upon an Asiatic. It is just as 
likely that junks drifted across the Pacific Ocean in the sixth 
century as in the nineteenth ; but Hwui-shin is as silent respect- 
ing the manner in which he returned from Fu-sang, as of the 
way he reached it. If the five priests had traveled toward 
Okotsk, and beyond the river Anadyr, till they reached Beh- 



234 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ring's Straits, and then slowly found their way down to warmer 
climes, this would naturally form part of the story. Silence on 
all these points makes one hesitate in coming to the conclusion 
that Fu-sang formed any part of America. 

The internal evidences to be deduced from what is stated 
are still more opposed to that conclusion. In our present state 
of knowledge of the ancient American languages, so far as I can 
learn, it would be a vain search to look for any words among 
them suggesting the names of yueh-Jci for king ; tui-lu for a 
high noble ; siao tui-lu for a secondary grandee ; and no-cha- 
sha for those of the lowest rank. It is not possible at this date 
to be quite sure what sounds were intended by the priest, or by 
the historian, to be represented by the Chinese characters used 
in transliterating the three foreign words ; but those here given 
are the present sounds in the court dialect, and probably near 
their originals. 

But the next statement, respecting the changes required every 
two years in the color of the king's dress, carries with it alto- 
gether too much likeness to Chinese ritualism to be overlooked. 
It needs a little explanation to be made clear. The sexagenary 
cycle, used in Eastern Asia from remote times, is made by repeat- 
ino- ten stems six times in connection with twelve branehes re- 
peated five times ; the two characters united form the name of 
a year. The ten years containing the ten stems begin with the 
first year of the sixty. Consequently, the first and second years, 
the eleventh and twelfth, the twenty-first and twenty-second, 
and so on to the last decade, will contain the same two stems — 
kiah yueh five times over ; in these two years the king's dress 
must be tsing, or azure color. In the next two, the third and 
fourth in each decade, the stems ping ting require it to be chih, 
red or carnation. In the next two the stems wu Jci require it to 
be hioang, yellow ; in the fourth binary combination, the stems 
kdng sin require it to be peh, white. Lastly, the two stems ^m 
kwei, denoting the ninth and tenth years of each decade, close 
the series, and then his robes are to be heh, black. These five 
are the primitive colors of Chinese philosophy. 

Nothing analogous to this custom has ever been recognized 
among the Aztec, Peruvian, or Maya people. The ten stems 
in these five couples indicate among the Chinese and Japanese 
the operation of the five elements, wood, fire, earth, metal, water, 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. 235 

in their active and passive exhibitions ; each one destroys its 
predecessor, and produces its successor, in a perpetual round of 
evolutionary forces. The mention of such an observance in Fu- 
sang seems to fix its location in Eastern Asia, where the sexa- 
genary computation of time has long been known. It was a 
curious usage, which would strike a priest familiar with the Chi- 
nese ritual. 

The same may be said of the worship of ancestral manes and 
images, and of the three years' mourning by the new king. The 
efforts to explain the big horns of the oxen, the red pears which 
will keep a year, and the vehicles drawn by horses, have each 
their difficulties if applied to anything yet known of the na- 
tions of ancient America along the Pacific coast, but may be 
applied to Northern Asia with some allowances. I think the red 
pears may denote persimmons, which are dried for winter use, 
and to this day form a common article for native ships' stores. 

The identification of the tree fu-sang, on which the notice 
chiefly turns, is not yet complete. Klaproth refers it to the Hi- 
biscus rosa sinensis; but I "agree with Dr. Bretschneider in mak- 
ing it to be the Broussonetia papyrifera, or paper-mulberry, a 
common and useful tree in Northeastern Asia. The use asserted 
to be made of the bark in manufacturing paper and dresses does 
not apply to the Hibiscus nearly so well, though that plant also 
produces some textile fibers, as does also another large tree not 
yet entirely identified, belonging to the family Tiliacese or lin- 
dens. The further statement, too, that its shoots are eatable 
like those of the bamboo, is inapplicable to the agave of Mexico 
as well as to the Hibiscus, the linden, or Broussonetia, none of 
which are endogenous. It is one of the inaccuracies of the de- 
scription, and can not be reconciled with either plant. The 
maguey made from the agave is better fitted for threads and 
cloths than for making paper. The fruit or berry of the Brous- 
sonetia is reddish, indeed, but no one would liken it to a li or 
pear. If the agave is intended, as Mr, Leland urges, it is very 
probable that Hwui-shin would have said something about the 
intoxicating drink called pulque, obtained from the leaves, rather 
than have likened them to the twig, as he has done. This last 
tree is either the ^leococca or Pawlonia, both well known in 
China and Japan ; so that an omission to speak of the j^ulgue be- 
comes rather an evidence against the agave being the/'u-sang tree. 



236 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The remark about the fibers being woven into brocade is also 
true of the Broussonetia. A beautiful fabric is made in Japan 
by weaving them with a woof of silk ; but nothing of this sort 
could be made from the weak agave fibers. Moreover, the 
Broussonetia has not been found in Mexico, although Neumann 
thinks that it once existed there. . . . The word kin (|^), ap- 
plied to the curious paper-silk brocade manufactured from the 
fu-sang bark, according to Ma Twan-lin's text, is also applied to 
embroidery and parti-colored textures. It is not so much the 
damask-like figure that is the essential point ; but among the 
Chinese the kin always has a variety of colors. This seems to 
have attracted the attention of Hwui-shin, and the remarkable 
iridescence of some specimens of this Japanese mulberry silk still 
excites admiration. Professor Neumann says that in the year- 
books of Liang he found the reading to be mien (|,^), "floss" ; 
but the textual character kin has more authority in its favor, and 
is found in the Yuen Kien Lui Han. lie translates the sentence: 
" From the bark they prepare a sort of linen which they use for 
clothing, and a sort of ornamental stuff." The word Jp^<, here 
rendered linen, is now confined to cotton fabrics ; but the distinc- 
tion aimed at in the two terms used seems to have been that of 
a plain fabric and a brocaded one, like the Japanese nisiki. 

It may be added, lastly, that many fables have gathered 
around the tree and the country of Fu-sang, which increase the 
difficulty of their identification. For instance, the Shih Chmi 
Ki, quoted in the native lexicon Pei-xKCin Yin Fii, says : "The 
fu-sang grows on a land in the Pih Hai, or Azure Sea, where it 
is abundant ; the leaves resemble the common mulberry {sang), 
and it bears the same kind of berries {shin, j^ ; the trunk rises 
several thousand rods {chang), and is more than two thousand 
rods in girth. Two trunks grow from one root, and lean upon 
each other as they rise ; whence it gets the name fu-sang, i. e., 
supporting mulberry." * The use of the technical word shin for 
the fruit of the fu-sang is a very strong argument for its being 
the Broussonetia, and shows that its affinity to the silk mulberry 
{Morus) had been noticed. 

* This is evidently a philological myth ; as one of the meanings of the charac- 
ter FU is " to prop up, support," '^'■* the name Fu-sang was supposed to mean 
" the supporting mulberry," and the tale given above was probably invented to 
account for it. It appears, however, that there is a species of double maguey, or 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. 237 

Since the publication of Mr. Leland's book, the Marquis 
d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, who has succeeded Stanislas Julien 
in the Chinese Professorship at Paris, has contributed a paper 
in the Transactions of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles- 
Letters for 1876, which contains some additional notices of Fu- 
sang. Among these is an extract translated from the JLiang Sz* 
Kung Ki, or "Memoirs of Four Lords of the Liang Dynasty," 
which throws some light on the times in which Hwui-shin lived, 
and the circumstances attending his arrival at King-chau. The 
marquis shows that it was just at the overthrow of the Tsi 
dynasty that the priest came as envoy from Fu-sang, and had to 
wait three years before the Emperor Wu-ti, of the Liang dy- 
nasty, could receive him. The section in Ma Twan-lin he justly 
regards as a copy of the official report made to his superiors by 
Yu Kieh, one of these four lords, obtained from Hwui-shin, the 
envoy. It is quite unlike the usage in such cases that nothing is 
said in the official annals of the presents oifered by him ; these, 
if they had come from America, would have been different from 
anything before seen, and therefore likely to be recorded. Such 
a list, however, did not necessarily fall within Ma's jjurpose when 
describing Fu-sang, The marquis notices some of the presents 
offered, which are spoken of in the " Memoirs of the Four Lords," 
and also some popular notions of that day concerning Fu-sang. 
He identifies the envoy with the shaman Hwui-shin, and con- 
cludes, with reason, that he was one of the five priests who went 
in the year 458 from Ki-pin. I have no copy of the Liang Sz^ 
Kung Ki, and therefore quote his translation : 

"At the commencement of the year 502,* an envoy from the 
kingdom of Fu-sang was introduced, and, having offered different 
things from his country, the emperor ordered Yu Kieh to in- 
terrogate him on the manners and productions of Fu-sang, the 
history of the kingdom, its cities, rivers, mountains, etc., in 

that the plant sometimes throws out two flowering-stalks instead of one ; as Saha- 
gun refers to it in the following words : ^''"' " The god Xolotl took to flight and 
hid himself in a field of maize, where he metamorphosed himself into a stalk of 
that plant, having two lower portions with separate roots, which the labourers call 
xolotl ; but having been discovered among the maize, he fled a second time and hid 
himself among the magueys, where he changed himself into a double maguey, which 
is called mcxolotl (from metl, maguey, and xoloil )." — E. P. V. 

* This clause should read, "At the commencement of the years called iien-fcien,^^ 
i. e., about the year 502.— E. P. V. 



238 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

conformity to the usage practiced at court whenever a foreign 
envoy visited it. The envoy from Fu-sang wept, and replied 
with a respectful animation, says the Chinese text, such as an 
old man would exhibit when he found himself in his own country 
after a long absence.* The presents which he oflFered consisted 
especially of three hundred pounds of yellow silk, produced by 
worms found on the fu-sang tree, and of extraordinary strength. 
The censer of the emperor, made of solid gold, weighed fifty 
catties (between fifty and sixty pounds), and three f threads of 
this silk held it up without breaking. Among the presents was 
also a kind of semi-transparent stone, carved in the form of a 
mirror, in which, when the sun's image was examined, the palace 
in the sun distinctly appeared. . . . 

" One day, while he was entertaining the court about foreign 
countries, the magnate Yu Kieh began to speak thus : ' In the 
extreme east is Fu-sang. A kind of silk-worm is found there, 
which is seven feet long and almost seven inches around. The 
color is golden. It takes a year to raise them. On the eighth 
day of the fifth moon the worms spin a yellow silk, which they 
stretch across the branches of the fu-sang, for they wind no co- 
coons. This native silk is very weak ; but, if it be boiled in the 
lye made from the ashes of fu-sang wood, it will acquire such 
strength that four strands well twisted together are able to hold 
up thirty catties. The eggs of these silk-worms are as big as 
swallows' eggs. Some of them were taken to Corea ; but the 
voyage injured them, and when they hatched out they were or- 
dinary silk-worms. The king's palace is surrounded with walls 
of crystal. They begin to be clear before daylight, and become 
all at once invisible when an eclipse of the moon occurs.' 

"The magnate Yu Kieh proceeded to say : * About ten thou- 
sand U northwest of this region there is a Kingdom of Women ; 
they have serpents for husbands. The serpents are J venomous 
and live in holes, while their spouses dwell in houses and pal- 
aces. No books are seen in this kingdom, nor have the people 

* The pamphlet, from which Professor Williams translated, might leave it to be 
inferred that the phrase, " such as an old man would exhibit when he found him- 
self in his own country after a long absence," was contained in the Chinese text. 
It is, however, merely a comment, made by M. d'Hervey de Saint-Denys.— E. P. "V. 

•|- The word "three" should be "six." — E. P. V. 

X This clause should read, " The serpents arc not venomous." — E. P. V. 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. 239 

any writing. They firmly believe in the power of certain sor- 
ceries. The worship of the gods imposes obligations which no 
one dares to violate. In the middle * of the kingdom is an island 
of fire with a burning mountain, whose inhabitants eat hairy 
snakes to preserve themselves from the heat ; rats live on the 
mountain, from whose fur an incombustible tissue is woven, 
which is cleaned by putting it into the fire instead of washing it. 
North of this Kingdom of Women there is a dark valley ; and 
still farther north are some mountains covered with snow whose 
peaks reach to heaven. The sun never shines there, and the lu- 
minous dragon dwells in this valley. West of it is an intoxi- 
cating fountain whose waters have the taste of wine. In this 
region is likewise found a sea of varnish whose waves dye plumes 
and furs black ; and another sea having the color of milk. The 
land surrounded by these wonders is of great extent, and exceed- 
ingly fertile. One sees there dogs and horses of great stature, 
and even birds which produce human beings. The males born 
of them do not live ; the females are carefully reared by their 
fathers, who carry them on their wings ; as soon as they begin 
to walk they become mistresses of themselves. They are re- 
markably beautiful and very hospitable, but they die before the 
age of thirty. The hares of that land are as big as the horses 
elsewhere, having fur a foot long. The sables are like wolves 
for size, with black fur of extraordinary thickness.' 

"The courtiers were greatly amused with these recitals, 
laughing and clapping their hands, while they assured the nar- 
rator that they had never heard better stories. One minister in- 
terrupted Yu Kieh by a bantering objection : ' If one can put 
any trust in the official reports collected in relation to this King- 
dom of Women, it might be all simply inhabited by savages who 
are governed by a woman ; there would then be no question re- 
specting this matter of serpents acting as husbands. How would 
you then arrange this matter ? ' 

" Yu Kieh answered pleasantly, that he had nothing more to 
say on that point ; and then he went on from one strange story 
to another still more strange, in which one part truth was mixed 
with nine parts invention." 

The whole paper from which this extract is taken does credit 
to its author's researches into this matter, however much we may 
* For " In the middle " read " At the south."— E. P. Y. 



V 



240 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

differ from his inferences. On a previous page he adduces fur- 
ther proof from two early Chinese authors, who mention Fu- 
sang. One of them is Kiuh Yuen, who flourished about b. c. 
300, and wrote the poem ie Sao, or " Dissipation of Sorrows," 
which has since become a classic among his countrymen. In it, 
the marquis says, " he traveled in thought to the four quarters of 
the universe. On the north he perceived the land of long days 
and long nights ; on the south, the boundless ocean met his 
view ; on the west, he saw the sun set in a lake, perhaps the 
Tengiri-nor or the Casj^ian Sea ; on the east, in spite of the vast- 
ness of the Pacific, and of the idea which would naturally pre- 
sent itself to his mind as the sun rose from the abyss of waters, 
he beheld the far-off shores receive the beams of Aurora, and in 
a valley, on a land shaded hj i\\Q fu-sang tree, he places the lim- 
its of the extreme east." 

He also calls in another author to fortify the poet, namely, 
Tung Fang-soh, whose work, the Shin-i King, or " Record of 
Strange Wonders," was extant in the Han dynasty, but was af- 
terward lost. That now bearing his name has been manipulated 
by subsequent authors, and Mr. Wylie regards it as a production 
of the fourth or fifth century, and " the marvelous occupies so 
large a portion that it has never been received as true narrative." 
But the marquis does not so regard it : '' The works of Tung 
Fang-soh, which treat of regions most remote from China, have 
undergone some slight alterations at the dictum of the Chinese 
literati, who inform us that the alterations which they suspect 
date back to the fourth century after Christ. Their criticism, 
far from diminishing for us its authority, becomes, on the con- 
trary, a valuable testimony of its authenticity at that date. 
This it what it says : ' East of the Eastern Ocean is the country 
of Fu-sang. When one lands on its shores, if he continue to 
travel on by land still further east ten thousand //, he will again 
come to a blue sea, vast, immense, and boundless.' I think that 
I hazard nothing in saying beforehand that it is impossible to 
apply these indications of Timg Fang-soh to any other country 
than America." 

Fu-sang and Pdng-lai are still used among the Chinese for 
fairy land, and are referred to by the common people very much 
as the Garden of the Hesperides and Atlantis were among the 
ancient Greeks. In Hankow, when a shopkeeper wishes to praise 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. £41 

the quality of his goods, he puts on his sign that they are from one 
or other of these lands. The latter is perhaps the more common 
of the two, for it has become associated with the conqueror 
Tsin Chi Hwangti, who sent an expedition, about b. c. 220, 
easterly to find it and two other islands, called San Sien Shan, 
or Three Fairy Hills, where the genii live. Pang-lai is now the 
name of a district in the province of Shantung (better known 
from the pref ectural city Tangchau, west of Chef u), which com- 
memorates this expedition after the fairies. Nothing was more 
natural to people living along the Yellow River, in the days of 
Kiuh Yuen and Tung Fang-soh, when Shantung was inhabited 
by wild tribes, than to regard all that little known region in the 
utmost east as the abode of whatever and whoever were wonder- 
ful. To quote such legends as corroborative history or travel, 
needs the support of some authentic statement to begin with ; 
and Hwui-shin would be as likely to connect his account with 
something his hearers would recognize as existing in that direc- 
tion, as. to make up a story. I do not infer that neither the Chi- 
nese nor Japanese of the sixth century had any knowledge of 
the American Continent from other sources, for it was as easy 
then for vessels to drift across the Pacific as they still do ; but 
they could not drift back again, and, when once landed anywhere 
between Alaska and Acapulco, the sailors were not likely to try 
a second voyage to reach their homes. 

There is, furthermore, an unexplained point how the name of 
the tree fu-sajiff came to be applied to the kingdom Fu-sang. 
If the Broussonetia be the plant denoted, and everything con- 
firms this deduction, one would have expected its identity or 
likeness to the chic shu, its Chinese name, to have been men- 
tioned. It is, however, quite as probable that the tree got its 
name from the country, for the manufacture of paper from its 
bark does not seem to have been known in the days of Kiuh 
Yuen. 

Yu Kieh's pleasant account of Fu-sang and its silk-worms 
tends rather to show that in his day it was a region which every 
one could people with what he chose. The use of silk among 
the people on the Pacific coast was, according to H. H. Ban- 
croft, mostly confined to the Mayas in Central America ; it was 
by no means a common product, and mostly used in combination 
with cotton. This reference by Yu Kieh, although so exagger- 
16 



242 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ated, tends to show that Fu-sang was regarded as on the western 
side of the Pacific Ocean ; and I am inclined to place it in Sag- 
halien Island. 

De Guignes lays much stress on the alleged distance of Fu- 
sang from Ta-han, and ingeniously reduces the 20,000 li, or 7,000 
miles, to an actual estimate of the road taken by Hwui-shin (Le- 
land, p. 128) to get there. In the introduction to his accounts 
of all these eastern countries, in chap. 324, Ma Twan-lin places 
the Flowery Land in the center of the universe, and then adds : 
" East of China lies Wo-kwoh, also called Japan ; east of Wo- 
kwoh, farther on, lies Fu-sang, about 30,000 li from China." 
These figures are much too hap-hazard to depend on in settling 
this point, and carry less weight than such internal evidence as 
we can analyze. If compared with other distances applied to those 
regions by this author, we soon find how valueless they all are. 
No one in the sixth century had any means of measuring long 
distances, or taking the bearings of places, so as to make even a 
rough guess as to their relative positions, if he had tried to make 
a map. For an illustration of this remark, see Dr. Bretschnei- 
der's article in " Transactions of North China Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society," No. X, 1876, where he gives an example of 
Asiatic map -making in a. d. 1331, to show the divisions of the 
Mongol Empire. It looks like a checker-board. 

The position of Fu-sang can not therefore be yet settled from 
these notices ; but we may, as the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint- 
Denys hopefully remarks, yet see the day when the immense 
riches hidden and almost lost in Chinese books will be brought 
out, and something more definite on this head be discovered. 

I have only two other quotations to add. One is the name 
Fushi-kolai, i. e., the kingdom of Fu-sang, an unusual designation, 
known to the Japanese themselves, of their own country or a 
part of it, and which would hardly have been applied to a land 
on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. The other is the men- 
tion found in the Ying-hioan Chi Lioh, or " Geography of the 
World," by Sii Ki-yil, the late governor of Fuhkien, who wrote it 
in 1848. In speaking of the troubles in Corea caused by the 
Mongol invasion, and the ravages of the Japanese corsairs along 
the Chinese coast during the Ming dynasty, he proceeds to say : 
" But as the rising grandeur of our present Imperial house began 
to diffuse itself afar, its quick intelligence perceived that it ought 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. 243 

first to scatter [as it were] slips from the fu-sang tree in the Yalley 
of Sunrise ; and thereby those lands (Corea and Japan) were awed 
into submission for many years, and our eastern frontier remained 
quiet and protected ; neither of these nations presumed to en- 
croach on our possessions. " The Valley of Sunrise, used in the 
Shu King, or " Book of Records," is regarded as a synonym of 
Corea, and the fu-sang tree is here connected with that land. A 
few sentences on. Governor Sii quotes from another book, called 
" Records of Ten Islands or Regions " : " In the sea toward the 
northeastern shores lie Fu-sang, Pang-kiu, and Ying-chau ; their 
entire circuit is a thousand li." He then adds : " I think that the 
story about these Three Fairy Hills arose from the exaggerated 
descriptions of our own writers, who used them to deceive and 
mislead men ; for really they were small islands, contiguous to 
Japan and belonging to it. If their ships of that period went to 
them out in the ocean, why could not [our people ?] find them 
if they had searched for them?" He then relates the quixotic 
expedition sent by Tsin Chi Hwangti under Sii Fuh to find 
them, with several thousand men and women, none of whom 
ever returned. From this reference it may be concluded that 
Governor Sii regarded Fu-sang and the other two to belong to 
the Kurile Islands near Yezo. He had access to many works 
in his own literature, and took unwearied pains to get at the 
truth of what he was writing about, by asking intelligent 
foreigners who were able to tell him. Among these were Rev. 
David Abeel (whose aid he acknowledges), and M. C. Morrison, 
a son of Rev. Dr. Morrison, the missionary. His opinion de- 
serves to be received as that of an intelligent scholar, though he 
knew nothing of the question started by de Guignes. 

In reading the marquis's translation of Yu Kieh's story, an 
English scholar can hardly fail to compare it with the " Voyage 
to Laputa " ; for that land was placed not far from Fu-sang by 
its clever discoverer and historian. Dean Swift, like Yu Kieh, 
drew on his imagination for his facts. The numerous references 
in that " Voyage " to the people of China, their institutions, pecul- 
iarities, costumes, and manners, must have been derived or sug- 
gested to him by the writings of Semedo, Martini, Mendez 
Pinto, and other travelers in Asia before 1T20, which were prob- 
ably in Sir William Temple's library. But one would almost as 
soon think of quoting Swift's assertion in chapter iii of this " Voy- 



244 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

age " regarding " the two lesser stars or satellites which revolve 
about Mars," as proof that Professor Asaph Hall's discovery of 
1876 had been already known in Queen Anne's reign, as to seri- 
ously undertake from these Chinese authors to prove that they 
knew the American Continent by the name of Fu-sang. 

[Then follows the translation of the account of the " King- 
dom of Women," which is given in full in the seventeenth chap- 
ter of this work. Professor Williams comments :] 

From this account, following that of Fu-sang, we might con- 
clude that Ma Twan-lin regarded Hwui-shin alone as his author- 
ity for both of them, as he is quoted at the beginning of each 
section. But the incident of a. d. 508 may have been taken 
from the " History of the Liang Dynasty. " The mention of Tsin- 
ngan, however, as the residence of the shipwrecked man who 
found the Nii Kwoh, shows how little dependence can be placed 
on the Buddhist priest's estimate of the distance or direction of 
either Fu-sang or Nii Kwoh from China. The only seaport of 
that day named Tsin-ngan was the present Pu-tien hien, identical 
with the pref ectural city of Hing-hwa, situated between Fuhchau 
and Tstien-chau in the province of Fuhkien. This man was 
probably a fisherman, bound for the Pescadore Islands, who was 
driven off by a storm through the Bashee Straits into the Pacific 
Ocean, among the islands east of the Philippines. I think the 
priest is not responsible for the sailor's story, as it is omitted in 
the Yuen Kien Lui Han, and only the first part given. The 
legend of the Nii Kwoh probably applies to two places. Sir 
John Maundevile * places his Lond of Amazoyne beside the 
Lond of Caldee where Abraham dwelt ; but his Yle of Nacume- 
ra, where "alle the men and women of that Yle have Houndes 
Hedes ; and thei ben clept Cynocephali," might be looked for 
where the " History of the Liang Dynasty " puts them as well 
as anywhere else. 

In his " Book of Marco Polo " (ed. 1871, vol. ii, pp. 338-340), 
Colonel Yule has brought together notices of the various legends 
which have appeared from time to time in Eastern Asia of this 
fabled land of females, to illustrate what the Venetian has reported 
in chapter xxxi about the " Two Islands called Male and Female." 
In his other admirably edited work, " Cathay, and the Way 
Thither" (p. 324), he alludes to the report of Marignolli, about 
* " Maundevile's Voyage," ed. by IlalUwell, 1839, pp. 154, 191. 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. 245 

A. D. 1330, of a kingdom in Sumatra ruled by women. The first 
part of Ma's notice, which is certainly ascribed to the shaman, 
leads one to look northeasterly toward the Kurile Islands for people 
with so much hair ; and suggests a comparison with the inhab- 
itants of Alaska called Kuchin Indians, described in Bancroft's 
" Native Races " (vol. i, pp. 115, 147, sqq.). But it would not be 
worth while to spend much time in looking for this fabled land, 
had not the idea got abroad that its location would aid in identi- 
fying Fu-sang with some part of America. 

[Next comes Professor Williams's translation of the account 
of the Wdn Shdn, or the land of " Marked Bodies," found in 
the seventeenth chapter of this work, as to which he says :] 

It is not certain whether marking and painting the body, or 
tattooing, is intended by this term icdn shCin ; but as the Chi- 
nese have a technical term, Icing^ |gf, used in this extract * to de- 
note the process, it proves that tattooing must be here intended. 
This practice is less common among the islanders in the North 
Pacific than in the South, where a warmer climate enables them 
to show off their pretty colors and figures. The courses and 
distances from Japan here given would land us in Alaska ; but 
no weight can be attached to them in this quotation from the 
Liang records. 

The distinction of rank, indicated by the different lines de- 
scribed in this extract, is like that in force among the Eskimo 
tribes near Icy Cape, as described by Armstrong : "At Point 
Barrow the women have on the chin a vertical line about half 
an inch broad in the center, extending from the lip, with a 
parallel but narrower one on either side of it, a little apart. 
Some had two vertical lines protruding from either angle of the 
mouth, which is a mark of their high position in the tribe " 
(Bancroft, vol. i, p. 48). The practice of tattooing has been 
so common at various times among the Chinese, Japanese, and 
other inhabitants of Eastern Asia, that nothing can be inferred 
regarding the country here intended. The singular notice of 
filling the moat with quicksilver may be paralleled by Sz'ma 
Tsien's description of the wonderful subterranean tomb of the 
great conqueror Tsin Chi Hwangti (b. c. 270) in Shensi, wherein 
he tells us that "rivers, lakes, and seas were imitated by means 

* I am unable to find this character in Ma Twan-lin's Chinese account of the 
country of " Marked Bodies." — E. P. V. 



246 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of quicksilver caused to flow in constant circulation by mechan- 
ism." 

[After giving the translation of the account of the country 
of Ta Han, Professor Williams says :] 

In chapter ccxxxi of the Yuen Kien Lui Han, a valuable Cyclo- 
paedia, compiled by orders of the Emperor Kanghi, and issued in 
1710, this section is quoted verbatim from the Nan JSM of Li 
Yen-shau, the same source from which Ma Twan-lin got it. 
Though that history contains the records of the Liang dynasty 
(a. d, 502-557), it was not written till about one century after- 
ward, in the Tang dynasty ; and during that interval nothing 
more seems to have been learned about the lands of Fu-sang, Ta 
Han, or Nii Kwoh. Nor had Ma Twan-lin found anything in his 
day, six centuries afterward, to add to what the shaman Hwui- 
shin reported ; while this Cycloptedia — the product of a com- 
mission of learned men who ransacked the literature of China to 
find whatever was valuable and insert it — contains just the same 
story, hoary with the twelve hundred years' repose it had had in 
the JVan Shi. To show the carelessness of these compilers in their 
work, in chapter ccxli another kingdom is described under the 
name of Ta Han, but not a word is added to indicate how two 
kingdoms should have had the same name. This last is equally 
vague with the first in respect to its identification, and reads as 
follows : 

" The ' New Records of the Tang Dynasty ' say : ' Ta Han 
borders on the north of Huh; it is rich in sheep and horses. 
The men are tall and large, and this has given the name Ta Han 
(i. e., Great China) to their country. This kingdom and Huh are 
both conterminous with Hieh-kiah-sz', and therefore they were 
never seen as guests [in our court]. But during the reigns 
Ching-kwan and Yung-hwui (a. d. 627 to G56) they presented 
sable skins and horses, and were received. It may be that they 
have come once since that time.' " 

The compilers of the Cyclopaedia abridged this extract some- 
what, for they do not refer to Lake Baikal, where Ta Han joins 
the countries of the Hieh-Jciah-sz' , and Huh, and thus help to 
identify it. The next section contains an extract of seven pages 
from the " New Records of Tang " about the Hieh-kiah-sz' , or 
Hakas, whom Klaproth regards as the ancestors of the Kirghis 
now dwelling in Tomsk. If half of this account be true, the 



PROFESSOR WILLIAMS'S ARGUMENT. 247 

Hakas formed a powerful kingdom in the Tang dynasty, and 
their neighbors Ta Ilan and Kuh are to be looked for on the 
river Yenisei, or more probably between the Angara and Vitim 
rivers. 

The effort of Professor Neumann to identify the first-named 
Ta Han with Alaska, simply because he places Wan Shan 
among the Aleutian Islands, and Ta Han lies 5,000 U east of it, 
is based alone on reported distances that are mere guesses. Mr. 
Leland also refers to de Guignes's opinion that Ta Han meant 
Kamtchatka, and that Wan Shan was Yezo, and adds this com- 
ment : " De Guignes determined with great intelligence that 
the country of the Wen-schin, 7,000 U northwest of Japan, must 
be Jezo, from the exact agreement of the accounts given of that 
country by Chinese historians of the early part of the sixth cent- 
ury (Goei-chi and Ven-hien-tum-hao, a. d. 510-515) with that 
of Dutch navigators in 1643. Both describe the extraordinary 
appearance of the natives, and speak of the abundance of a 
peculiar mineral resembling quicksilver " (p. 129). Mr. Leland 
has been misled, in regard to this agreement, by not knowing 
that these supposed historians are only the names of two books, 
viz., "Records of the Wei Dynasty" (a. d. 386 to 543), and 
the same " Antiquarian Researches " from which I have trans- 
lated these sections. He also assumes that Hwui-shin and his 
predecessors went by sea, adding that this was "no impossible 
thing at a time when in China both astronomy and navigation 
were sciences in a high sense of the word." 

[Then follow the accounts of the "Land of Pygmies," of 
the " Kingdom of Giants," and of the " Islands of Lewchew," 
none of which have any direct bearing upon the account re- 
garding Fu-sang, the " Women's Kingdom," or the countries 
passed on the way thither. Professor Williams continues :] 

In concluding these extracts from Ma Twan-lin's writing^_, I 
need hardly draw attention to the vagueness which marks mem, 
when we look for any definite information. His long chapter 
on Japan bears more marks of well-digested information than 
any of those which are here given, and indicates constant inter- 
course between it and China. Mr. Leland quotes from several 
authors whatever will elucidate and uphold his theory respecting 
Fu-sang, and deserves thanks for his research in this interesting 
question. He has, however, been led astray by a similarity, or 



248 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

an error in spelling, to confound Kamtchatka with Lewchew.* 
. . . Mr. Leland has a note in which he says : " It [ie., the ac- 
count of the kingdom of Lieu-kuei] is evidently borrowed from 
the Tang-schu, but is much better arranged, and contains some 
original incidents, on which account I have freely availed my- 
self of it." I have no means of verifying this statement, and 
therefore am unable to say how far Ma quoted from the " History 
of the Tang," and also to explain whether Kamtchatka was ever 
called Lieu-kuei, and what the Chinese characters for this name 
are, or whether Lieu-kuei is a misprint for Liu-kiu or Lew- 
chew. The name of this insular kingdom has been written a 
dozen ways by foreigners ; it is called Riu-kiu by the Japanese, 
Doo-choo by the inhabitants, Low-kow by the Cantonese, and 
Lewchew by the Ningpo people ; but it could never have been 
confounded with Kamtchatka by either of them. 

* It appears that Professor Williams was led to confound Liu-liu (^ 3^), 
or Lewchew, with JAeu-kuci (^ ^ — characters transcribed in Professor Will- 
iams's dictionary as Liu-kwei), a term which seems, beyond question, to have 
been applied to Kamtchatka. The fact that he did not learn the characters for 
the term Lieu-kuei is evidently the cause of his error ; and in this case it was he, 
and not Mr. Leland, who was led astray by the similarity in sound of the two 
names, one of which was applied to the Lewchew Islands and the other to Kam- 
tchatka.— E. P. V. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. — NATURE OF THE CHINESE LAN- 
GUAGE. 

Fu-sang wood — NiS-yao-Jciun-ti — The Warm Spring Valley — The Shin I King — 
The kingdom Hi-Jio-koue — The astronomer Hi-ho — The story of a Corean — 
An island of women — P^ung-lai — An expedition to explore it — The coloniza- 
tion of Japan — Lang Yuen — The Kwun-lun Mountains — A statue of a native 
of Fu-sang — A poem to his memory — The tree of stone — Varying translations 
— The peculiarities of the Chinese language — The brevity and conciseness of 
the written language — Its lack of clearness — The meaning of groups of char- 
acters, or compounds — Proper names — No punctuation — Difficulty of trans, 
lating correctly — Preparation of M. Julien — Illustrations of mistakes. 

To the information regarding Fu-sang, which is contained in 
the quotations given in the preceding chapters, a few additional 
items may be added. Klaproth states"^^ that some Japanese 
writers report that a blackish, petrified wood is found in their 
country, which is highly valued, and which is called fu-sang 
wood, or wood of the country of Fu-sang : that this country is 
Japan, which has received this name because of its beauty, in 
which it resembles the shrub fu-sang, which is, as is well known, 
the species of hibiscus which we designate by the name of rosa 
Sinetisis. 

"" A passage of the Shan Hai King, quoted by some Japan- 
ese authors, reads as follows : 

" In the vast space placed at the eastern extremity of the 
world is the mountain Nie-yao-hiun-ti. It is there that the tree 
fu-sang grows. Its height is three hundred U. Its leaves re- 
semble those of mustard. Near this, to the east, is the valley 
Wen-yuan-kuy The Chinese words, " Nie-yao-hiun-ti^'' are pro- 
nounced by the Japanese " I-yo-hun-te^'' and the Japanese author 
adds that this is lyo, one of the four provinces of the island 



250 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of JSi-ko^f. The valley Wen-yuan-kii is also called T^mg-Jcu, 
or " Warm Springs." 

We read in another Chinese work, called Shin I King : "In 
the eastern part of the world there is a mulberry-tree eight hund- 
red feet in height ; it covers a large space of ground, and its 
leaves are ten feet long and six or seven broad. Upon this tree 
there live silk-worms three feet in length, of which the cocoons 
furnish a pound of silk. The fruit of this tree is three feet and 
five inches long." 

The following passage is found in another chapter of the 
Shan Hai King : "Beyond the southeastern ocean, and between 
the Kan-shui, or the " Pleasant Rivers," is the kingdom of Hi- 
ho-Jcoue (or, according to the Japanese pronunciation of the char- 
acters, Ghi-tca-Jcohf). There lived the virgin Ili-Jio (Ghi-wa), 
who espoused Ti-tsiun, and gave birth to ten suns." The same 
book also says that Hi-ho ( Ghi-wa) is the name of a kingdom 
among the countries of the east, which is also called " The 
Place where the Sun Rises." . . . 

A passage of the Shan Hai King T^sang-chu, which is a com- 
mentary upon the Shan Hai King, says : "In the days of the 
Emperor Hwang-ti, Hi-ho ( Ghi-wa) was the astronomer charged 
with the observations of the sun. This prince having given him 
the country of Fu-sang, he embarked with his family, settled 
there, and gave this country the name of Hi-ho-koue ( Ghi-wa 
JcoJcf), or the country of Hi-ho. He had ten children ; the boys 
were named Yen (in Japanese, Fiko), or the male sun ; and the 
girls Ki (in Japanese, Fime), or the female sun ; the sun being 
considered as the source of all fecundity." " So, "adds the Japan- 
ese author, " a man, who in our days would be called Ko-sak, 
would at that time have been called Ko-jiko ; and a woman 
named Ouki-ne would then have been called Ouki-fime. This 
country," he continues, " was also called Wa-kokf'' (in Chinese, 
Ho-koue). Wd {Ho), the second character of Ghi-wa, signifies 
tranquillity and peace ; kokf means kingdom. Wa (in Chinese, 
Ho) is, even now, one of the names of Japan. 

Klaproth also reports an incident which indicates that Hwui 
Shan told in Corea, as well as in China, the story of his advent- 
ures, and that some recollection of his narration was preserved 
by the people, as the following story of a country inhabited 
by women recalls Hwui Shan's account of the "Kingdom of 



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 251 

Women," as well as the Chinese account of the sailors who were 
shipwrecked upon an island inhabited by women who resembled 
those of China. The incident is as follows : "" 

The King KM (of Wo-tsiu, one of the divisions of Corea) 
sent emissaries to look for Koung, to capture him, so that he 
might be punished. When they had reached the eastern coast of 
the country, they asked an old man if there were any people beyond 
the sea upon the east. He answered : " Some of the inhabitants 
of this country once embarked to go a-fishing, when they were as- 
sailed by a storm ; and, having been violently driven before the 
wind for ten days, they reached an island inhabited by people 
whose language they could not understand, and who had an 
ancient custom of drowning a young virgin in the sea at the 
seventh month." The same old man also stated that there was 
another country in the midst of the sea, inhabited by women, 
without any men. He said that, simply clothed in linen gar- 
ments, they threw themselves into the sea, and passed it by swim- 
ming. Their bodies resembled those of the Chinese women, and 
their garments had sleeves three fathoms long. Their country 
was in the midst of the sea of Wo-tsiu. 

The expedition above referred to occurred during the reign 
of the Wei dynasty, i. e., some time between 386 and 534 a. d.^*" 
As a place called P'ling-lai is frequently mentioned in con- 
nection with Fu-sang, the following statements regarding it may 
be of interest : 

In the year 219 b. c.,'"^^ during'"' the epoch of the Japanese 
Dairi Ko-rei-ten-o, who reigned from 290 to 210 b. c, the Em- 
peror Shi-hicang, of the T'sin dynasty, reigned in China. He 
sent the skijlful physician Siu-fii to the island of P\mg-lai to 
seek for the beverage of immortality. It is stated that, not hav- 
ing succeeded in this commission, he arrived at Japan, and died 
upon the mountain Fusi. The Chinese mythologists pretend 
that in the Eastern Sea there are three mountains (or islands) of 
the genii, called P"ung-lai, Fang-chang, and Ing-chen. They 
are inaccessible. To the first is also given the name of P'ung- 
tao, or the island of P'ung; it is said that they are covered 
with tabernacles, and with halls of gold and silver, which are 
used as the habitations of the genii. 

It is to these three islands that Tsin Shi Hwang Ti (the 
Emperor Shi Hwang, of the Tsin dynasty) sent an expedition, 



252 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

composed of some thousands of young people of both sexes, un- 
der the guidance of one Tao-szu^ to seek there for the remedy- 
that confers immortality. The Chinese historians report that 
the fleet which bore them was shipwrecked, and that a single 
bark returned with the news of the disaster. It is seen that the 
Japanese annalists report the contrary. iSin-fu was, according 
to their statement, one of the physicians of the emperor of 
China ; he introduced into their country arts and sciences which 
they had not before known, and the Japanese have therefore 
accorded divine honours to him. 

It appears that the Chinese tradition of the three fabulous 
islands, situated in the Eastern Sea, had its origin in the vague 
ideas which they then had of Japan, which is really composed of 
three large islands, which could only be reached with difficulty 
by navigators as inexperienced as the Chinese must have been at 
that time. Other Chinese authors state that the island, or the 
mountain, of P'ung-lai is found near an island situated to the 
east of CJCang-Jcoue, a district of T'ai-cheu, of the province of 
Che-Jciang. 

Mr. Mayers adds "*® that it is conjectured that this legend has 
some reference to attempts at colonizing the Japanese islands ; 
and M. de Rosny "" states that this expedition is mentioned by 
a number of Japanese historians. 

Klaproth mentions the fact that "^^ the Japanese proverbially 
apply the name P'ung-lai shan to all places where treasure is 
kept. 

In Professor Williams's Dictionary, -^^ the term ^ ^g, lang 
YUEN, is defined " Fairy-land." The characters mean a vacant or 
unoccupied pasture-field, or park ; and as it is a fact that there 
is much confusion between the Chinese accounts of "Fairy- 
land " and of Fu-sang, this may possibly be a reference to the 
vast plains of America, which, some centuries ago, were almost 
uninhabited. 

Mr. Medhurst ^*" states that ;|-J ^ (pronounced Fu-sang in 
the Mandarin dialect, and Hoo-song in the Hok-keen dialect) is 
a kind of supernatural mulberry-tree, that grows on the east of 
the Kwun-lim hill, toward the sunrising ; hence the common 
expression that the sun rises at Fu-sang. 

It is reported'''^' that the name Kicun-lun is applied to a 
range of mountains, rendered famous in Chinese history and 



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. 253 

legend, separating Thibet from CMnese Turkestan and the Des- 
ert of Gobi. It starts from the Pushtikur Knot, in latitude 36° 
N"., and runs along easterly nearly parallel between that and the 
35th degree. At the 92d degree of longitude, E., in the middle 
of its course, it divides into two ranges, one declining to the 
southeast — the Bajinkara, or Snowy Mountains — and unites 
with the Yung Ling, or Cloudy Mountains. The other branch 
bends northerly, and, under the various names of Kilien Shan, 
In Shan, and Ala Shan, passes through Kansuh and Shinsi to 
join the Inner Hing-ngan range. The Kwun-lun range is the 
Olympus of China, and the supposed source of the Fung-shtoin. 

Professor Williams states that the terra Kwun means "a 
peak beyond comparison," and adds that the Kwun-lun range is, 
like the Caucasus among the Arabs, the fairy-land of Chinese 
writers, one of whom says its peaks are so high that when sun- 
light is on one side the moonlight is on the other. ^^^ The En- 
cyclopaedia Britannica '^^® says that the name is derived from 
the Chinese geographers, and is probably a corruption of some 
Turkish or Thibetan word ; it appears to be unknown locally. 
The name having been adopted, chiefly on the initiative of Hum- 
boldt, before any correct geographical knowledge had been ob- 
tained of the region to which it was applied, it has been used 
with inconvenient want of precision, and this has encouraged 
erroneous conceptions. Little precise information is available on 
the subject. It is worthy of notice that the name Kwim-lun is 
also applied to an island in the China Sea (Pulo Condor Island), 
probably in imitation of the Anamitic name Conon, or Koh- 
noonor.25« 

As the characters ^ -^, Kwuj^-lun, are composed of the 
radical for mountains, [Ij, combined with the phonetics B ^, 
Kwux-LUN, which, taken by themselves, mean^^» "the canopy of 
the sky," it seems possible that the name originally meant 
"mountains reaching to the sky," and that it may have been ap- 
plied to more than one high range, somewhat as the general 
terra " Alps " is applied in English. 

As in sorae cases Chinese characters terminating in nasals are 
intended to transcribe foreign words in which no nasal is found- 
as, for instance, Kiang-lang is written for the Sanskrit Kdla^ and 
Thoung-loung-mo for the Sanskrit drouma "" — it does not seem 
impossible that, in case sufficient reason is found for believing 



254 AIT INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the country of Fu-sang to be identical with Mexico, the name 
Kwun-lun, as applied to the mountain-range east of which Fu- 
sang is situated, may be used as the Chinese transcription of the 
Mexican word Quauhtla, meaning a mountain, or a range of 
mountains.'*'^ 

As an illustration of the knowledge of the country of Fu- 
sang still preserved among the people of China, the following 
translation of an account given by Mr. Chung Nam Shan, of 
San Francisco, in September, 1883, may be found of interest : 

" Some fifty U east of Canton there is a temple named the 
temple of Po-lo, outside of the door of which there stands a statue 
of a man who came from the country of Fu-sang. Here he 
lived for some years, and here he finally died ; and after his death 
he was deified and his statue placed at the door of the temple. 
He is represented as standing looking earnestly toward the east, 
with his right hand shading his eyes. At some later date a visitor 
to the temple wrote this stanza about him : 

' Where the sun rises, in the hind of Fu-sang, there is my home ; 
Seeking glory and riches, I came to the Kingdom of the Central Flower; 
Everywhere the cocks crow and the dogs bark, the same in one place as 

in another, 
Everywhere the almond -trees blossom the same.' " 

The last two lines are intended to be consolatory to a man 
that is homesick ; the assurance being that one place is substan- 
tially the same as another, and the conclusion being that it is 
therefore foolish to grieve for any particular place. 

The Chinese believe that in " Fairy-land " (between which 
mythical land and the country of Fu-sang there is, as has been 
mentioned, more or less confusion in their traditions), or in the 
Kwun-lun mountains,^^" there is a tree of stone,^"* called k'i-kak, 
" the agate gem " ; °^^'pih-shu, *' the green-jade-stone tree," *^" or 
LANG-KAN-SHU, ''^^^ " the coral-trcc " ; which myth it will here- 
after be shown may have originated from a pun, or accidental 
resemblance between two words of the Mexican language. 

Before entering upon the discussion of the account given by 
Hwui Shan, it seems necessary to give his story in full, in the 
original Chinese, as preserved for us by Ma Twan-lin, and place 
opposite to it the different translations that have been made 
by the Chinese scholars who have given the subject attention. 



NATURE OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 255 

This course is necessary, as the disagreements as to the true ren- 
dering of various phrases and characters are numerous and im- 
portant ; and Hwui Shan's report will often be found to be 
true if a certain reading, for which there is good authority, is 
adopted, while, if the versions of other translators are accepted 
no confirmation of the statement can be found. ' 

It is evident that, in cases in which some five or six translat- 
ors differ radically as to the meaning of a certain clause, all but 
one are certainly mistaken as to its true meaning, and it may 
even be the case that no one of the translators has correctly ren- 
dered it. The present author, therefore, while admitting that he 
has no other knowledge of Chinese than such as he has been able 
to obtain from the study of a few Chinese-English dictionaries 
and grammars, during the time that he has been interested in the 
question as to the true location of the country of Fu-sang, will 
venture to give his own translation of the account, differing in 
some points from the version given by any of the celebrated 
scholars who have preceded him. In all cases, however, the 
authorities will be quoted in full upon which he relies as justify- 
mg the changes in the translation ; and it is believed that these 
authorities will be found sufficiently plain and decided, as to the 
points m question, to enable all to see the reasons for the render- 
ing that is given. As, moreover, he has had the assistance of a 
number of native Chinese scholars, as well as of others who 
have made a study of the Chinese language, some one or more 
of whom he has consulted as to each doubtful point, he believes 
that his translation will be accepted as giving at least as accurate 
a rendering of the true meaning of the original as is found in any 
of the earlier versions. 

The principle has been adopted that, in all cases in which the 
Chinese text may be understood in two or more ways, one of 
which is true while the others are not, Hwui Shan is entitled to 
that translation which brings his story into conformity with 
the truth. While there is certainly great danger, in attempting 
a translation from the Chinese under this principle, that the 
translator may fail to give the true meaning of the original text, 
it nevertheless seems plain that if the account be true, such a 
course will best bring out its truth ; while, if it be false, no in- 
genuity can twist it into a true description. 

The possibility of interpreting a sentence in several different 



256 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ways arises from the peculiarities of the Chinese language. 
While it is feasible to so convey a thought in Chinese that there 
can be no misconception as to the true meaning, or as to the re- 
lations which the different words of the sentence bear to one 
another, and while this is usually done in the colloquial idioms, 
yet in the written language it is made an object to convey the 
conception with the least possible number of words or characters, 
and clearness is therefore frequently sacrificed in favour of brev- 

"Before all things," says Martin,'*^' "a Chinese loves con- 
ciseness. While we construct our sentences so as to guard 
against the possibility of mistake, he is satisfied with giving the 
reader a hint of his meaning. Our style is a ferry-boat, that 
carries the reader over without danger or effort on his part ; his 
is only a succession of stepping-stones, which test the agility of 
the passenger in leaping from one to another. ... In return 
for a few hints, the reader himself supplies all the links that are 
necessary for the continuity of thought." 

It is said of Confucius, for instance,®^" that he studies the 
utmost brevity and terseness, and frequently the most profound 
Chinese scholars, without the aid of commentaries, are unable to 
comprehend the meaning of his sentences. Even at this day, 
among the Chinese, a writer can scarcely lay claim to classical 
taste unless he is able to couch his thoughts in language so 
brief and obscure as to require the aid of a commentator to 
make them intelligible to the common reader. 

Dr. Bretschneider states '^^ that, in translating from the Chi- 
nese, the principal question is the understanding of groups of 
words in their connection, or phrases, not of single words ; for 
very often the single characters in a phrase lose completely their 
original meaning. In the dictionaries, for example, you find /w, 
to assist, and ma, horse. But/w ma is not an " assistant horse," 
but is used in Chinese historical writings always to designate the 
son-in-law of the emperor. Chinese literature is very rich in such 
combinations and phrases formed by two or more characters ; 
and the original meaning of the characters, in most of the cases, 
does not serve to explain the phrases. It is in vain, then, that 
you look for them in the dictionaries ; the greater part, although 
often unknown to our European Sinologues, have come down by 
tradition to the Chinese of the present day, and they are so 



NATURE OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 257 

familiarized with those terms that they consider it superfluous 
to incorporate them in the dictionaries. A Chinese dictionary 
in a European language, with a good collection of phrases, is 
still a desideratum. At least all existing dictionaries are of no 
value to the reader as regards the Chinese historical style, and, 
if he consults only Morrison's or other dictionaries, he runs the 
risk of committing the greatest mistakes. 

In Chinese historical writings, or narratives of journeys, one 
meets with a great many proper names. The Chinese, in render- 
ing names of countries or men, are obliged to represent every 
syllable of the name by a similar sounding hieroglyph (it is 
known that all Chinese words are monosyllabic). As every 
hieroglyph has a meaning, it is sometimes difficult for a Euro- 
pean scholar, translating without a native teacher, to distinguish 
whether the characters represent only sounds, or whether they 
must be translated. European translators have often committed 
errors of this kind. 

Another difficulty, to the European reader of Chinese books, 
arises from the complete ignorance of the Chinese of our system 
of punctuation. They have some characters which denote the 
end of a period, but they seldom make use of them ; and gen- 
erally one finds no break in a whole chapter ; so that the reader 
must decide for himself where a point is to be supplied. An 
erroneous punctuation sometimes changes the sense of the whole 
period, or even the whole article. 

Dr. Bretschneider adds that '** every Sinologue knows how 
apt the ambiguous Chinese style is to give rise to misunderstand- 
ings, and that often the Chinese themselves are unable to solve 
the difficulties ; and he states™^ that he is of opinion, and thinks 
every conscientious Sinologue will agree with him, that it is im- 
possible to make correct translations from Chinese in Europe, 
without the assistance of a good native scholar, except, of course, 
those Sinologues who have studied the language in China, and 
who have studied it for a long time. 

Professor Max Miiller says that,'^®^ while the mere transla- 
tion of a Chinese work into French seems a very ordinary per- 
formance, M. Stanislas Julien, who had long been acknowl- 
edged as the first Chinese scholar in Europe, had to spend 
twenty years of incessant labour in order to prepare himself for 
the task of translating the " Travels of Hiouen-thsang." 
17 



258 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

As an illustration of tlie danger of misunderstanding a Chi- 
nese text, the following translation of a Chinese ode, by Pro- 
fessor Neumann, is quoted from the " Chinese Repository " : '''^ 

" Cease fighting now for a while, 
Let us call back the flowing waves. 
"Who opposed the enemy in time ? 
A single wife could overpower him ; 

Streaming with blood, she grasped the mad offspring of guilt; 
She held fast the man, and threw him into the meandering stream. 
The Spirit of the "Water, wandering up and down on the waves. 
Was astonished at the virtue of Ying. 

My song is at an end. 
"Waves meet each other continually ; 
I see the water green as mountain Peih, 
But the brilliant fire returns no more. 
How long did we mourn and cry ! " 

" I am compelled," says Professor Neumann, " to give a free 
translation of this verse, and confess myself not quite certain of 
the signification of the poetical figures used by our author." 
We will subjoin a less free translation : 

" The spirit of war has now ceased and vanished away; 
Let us go back in thought, returning like the winding stream. 
"Who was there that could then resist the foe, 
When but a single female was found to insult his power? 
With her blood she spat on the guilty wretch, 
Then, despising life, she sank in the curling waves. 
Her pure ice-like spirit now wanders over the stream, 
Her courageous soul with liesitancy lingers behind. 

"My song ended, I still loitered on the spot, and, casting a 
look on all around, I saw the hills retaining their blueness, and 
the sea its azure hue ; but the beacon smoke and the shadowing 
masts return no more. Long I stayed disburdening myself of 
sighs." 

An instance of a still more radical misunderstanding of the 
meaning of a Chinese sentence is given ^'^ in the " Chinese Re- 
pository," vol. iii, p. 72. 

The quotations given above sufficiently show the difficulty 
sometimes experienced in comprehending the exact meaning of 



NATURE OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. 259 

a Chinese author, and hence it should not be considered as any 
reflection upon the scholarship and superior knowledge of the 
eminent gentlemen who have given translations of the Chinese 
account of Fu-sang, if the present author, relying partly upon 
the dictionaries and grammars of the language, and partly upon 
the views of native scholars, ventures in some cases to differ 
from his predecessors. 

Although knowing far less in regard to the Chinese language 
than any of the celebrated scholars who have discussed Hwui 
Shan's story, it is possible that the greater length of time, and 
the more patient and careful study, which he has devoted to this 
particular account, may have counterbalanced this disadvantage, 
and may have enabled him to discover the true meaning of cer- 
tain phrases which have heretofore been misunderstood. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE DESCRIPTIOX OF FU-SANG. 

The Chinese authorities — Variations in the texts — The Chinese text — A literal 
translation — Parallel translations of eight authors — The date of Hwui ShSn's 
arrival in China— The location of Fu-sang— The f u-sang trees— The deriva- 
tion of the name of the country — The leaves of the fu-sang tree— Its first 
sprouts— Red pears — Thread and cloth — Dwellings — Literary characters — 
Paper — Lack of arms — The two places of confinement — The difference be- 
tween them — The pardon of criminals — Marriages of the prisoners— Slave- 
children — The punishment of a criminal of high rank — The great assembly — 
Suffocation in ashes — Punishment of his family — Titles of the king and 
nobles — Musicians — The king's garments — The changing of their colour — 
— A ten-year cycle — Long cattle-horns — Their great size — Horse-carts, cattle- 
carts, and deer-carts — Domesticated deer — Koumiss — The red pears preserved 
throughout the year — To-p'u-t'aocs — The lack of iron — Abundance of cop- 
per — Gold and silver not valued — Barter in their markets — Courtship — The 
cabin of the suitor — The sweeping and watering of the path — The ceremonies 
of marriage — Mourning customs — The worship of images of the dead — The 
succession to the throne — A visit from a party of Buddhist missionaries — 
Their labours and success. 

The substance of the following account is found in the 
X«Vm<7-sAw,"" or " Records of the Liang Dynasty," contained 
in the JVan-shi, or " History of the South," written by Li Yen- 
shau,* who lived at the commencement of the seventh century. 
The JVati-shi forms a portion of the Great Annals of China, 
the JVien-rh-shi, or " Twenty-two Historians." 

Ma Twan-lin copied the account in his " Antiquarian Re- 
searches " ; but as Mr. Leland states "'* that he gives the report 
" much more correctly," it is evident that he made such changes 
as he thought the truth to require. A number of points, as to 
which the different accounts vary, are noted by some of the trans- 

* See Klaproth's account, given in chapter iii, and that of Professor Williams, 
in chapter xiv. 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 261 

lators, but it is not likely that attention has been called to all the 
variations. As the present author has been unable to obtain a 
copy of any other than Ma Twan-lin's account, that alone is 
given ; but in a few important cases, in which Mr. Leland and 
the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys have pointed out the 
difference between the text of Ma Twan-lin and that of the 
Liang-shu, the character found in the latter is given in a note 
in the column headed " Definition." It would be interesting to 
compare the different Chinese versions of Hwui Shan's story, 
and such a comparison would undoubtedly do much to remove 
difficulties and assist in bringing the truth to light ; when it 
would probably be found that most of Ma Twan-lin's " correc- 
tions," like those of some of our modern Shakespearean com- 
mentators, resulted only from a failure to understand the 
original text, and that it is necessary to reject them, in order 
to arrive at the true meaning of the author. 

The left-hand pages that follow contain the characters of Ma 
Twan-lin's text, with their sounds, and Professor Williams's defini- 
tions of their meaning, Avith a column showing the page of his 
dictionary upon which they are found. In the last column is 
given that English word which comes the nearest to expressing 
the meaning of the Chinese character; and, by reading these 
words in their order down the column, a literal translation of 
the story will be discovered, which will, in most places, be found 
intelligible — such English words as are necessary to show the 
connection with one another of the characters, and the ideas 
which they express, having been inserted in small type. 

Upon the opposite pages eight different translations will be 
found, being those of de Guignes, Klaproth, Neumann, de Ros- 
ny, Julien, d'Hervey de Saint -Denys, "Williams, and the present 
author ; these being given in the order above-named, and an 
English version of the first six being presented instead of the 
original French or German of their authors. In making these 
translations it has been my intention to follow the foreign text as 
closely and literally as is consistent -with intelligibility and with 
justice to the translators. It will be seen that, in a number of 
cases in which my version of the Chinese text differs from that 
of the majority, I am nevertheless supported by some one or 
more of the scholars who have previously studied the subject. 



262 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS, 



No. 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

1 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

23 
24 



Characfr 



Page. 



^ 



^ 






PI 






m 



144 
724 



144 

724 

491 

38 

966 

1149 

1134 

1134 

634 

342 

491 

1113 

730 

576 

265 

736 

498 

60 

403 

48 

788 
1142 



Sound. 



FU 

SANG 



FU 
SANG 
KWOH 

CUE 

TS'I 
YUNG 
YUEN 
YUEN 

NIEN 

K'l 
KWOH 

YIU 

SUA 

MAN 

nwui 
shIn 

LAI 

CHI 

KING 

CHEU 

SHWOH 
YUN 



Dbfinition. 



To assist, support. 
The mulberry tree. 



Same as 1. 
Same as 2. 

A state, country, region. 

This, that ; indicates the sub- 
ject of the proposition. 

The name of a dynasty. 

Perpetual, eternal, final. 

The first, the commencement. 

Same as 9. 

A year. 

He, she, it, that, there. 

Same as 5. 

To have, to be, existence. 

Sand, gravel. ( Transcription 
< of the San- 
Agate, a door. ( skritSramana. 

Intelligent, wise, mild. 

Deep, profound, learned. 

To come, to reach. 

To arrive, to, at. 

A thorny bush. fName of a 

I Chinese 

An islet, a dis- 1 political 

trict, a region. [ district. 

To speak, narrate. 

To speak, say, circulate. 



Translation. 



FU- 
SANG. 



ru- 

SANG 
COUNTRY 

REGARDING : 

in the 

reign of the 

TS'I 

dynasty, 

in the years called 

EVERLASTING 

FOUNDATION, 
in the 
FIRST 

YEAR, 

THAT 

COUNTRY 

HAD 

a SHA- 
MAN 
named 

HWUI 

SIllN 

who 
CAME 

TO 

KING- 

CHEU 

and 

TOLD 
the following 

STORY : 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 263 



o 

I— I 

p 






The following is the account which has been preserved for us. It was 
given by a priest who went to China in the year 499 a. d. in the reign of 
the Tcy dynasty. 



In the first of the years young yuan of the reign of Fe-ti, of the dynasty 
of Thd, a Chamen (or Buddhist priest) called Hoei chin, arrived from the 
country of Fu-sang at King-tchcou. lie related what follows : 



During the reign of the Tsi dynasty, in the first year of the years bear- 
ing the "designation "Eternal Origin" (i. e., in the year 499 of our era), 
there came a Buddhist priest from this kingdom, who was called by his 
cloister-name of HoeiscJiin, i. e., "Universal Sympathy," to Alng-ischeu- 
an old name for the present district of Hu-Kuang and several adjoining 
districts — who said : 



(Not translated.) 



The kingdom of Fu-sang (was made known to the Chinese) in the first 
year of the period Yong-Youen of the dynasty of the Thsi (499). In this 
kin-^dom there was a Cfia-men, named Hoei-chin, who came into the dis- 
trict of King-tcheou. He related that which follows : 



In regard to the kingdom of Fu-sang, the first year, yung-youen, of the 
dynasty°of Tsi, there was a Cha-men, or Buddhist priest of this kingdom, 
called Hoei-chin, who arrived at the city of Kmg-tcheou, and who reported 
that which follows : 



In the first year of the reign Yung-yuen of the emperor Tung HwSn- 
hau of the Tsi dynasty (a. d. 499), a Shaman priest named Hwui-shin ar- 
rived at King-chau from the kingdom of Fusang. He related as follows : 



In the first year of the reign of the Ts'i dynasty, known by the desig- 
nation Yung-Yuen, or "Everlasting Foundation" (i. e., in the year 
499 A D ), a Shaman, or Buddhist priest, named Hwui Shan, came to 
KiSG-CHEU from that country, and narrated the following account regard- 
ing the country of Fc-sang (or Fc-sang-kwoh). 



264 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Charact'r 


Page. 


SouDd. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


25 


^ 


144 


FU 


Same as 1. 


FU- 


26 


# 


724 


SANG 


Same as 2. 


SANG 


27 
28 




941 

839 


TSAI 

TA 


To be in or at, to dwell. 
Great, chief, prominent. 


IS SITUATED 

from the 
GREAT 


29 


m 


164 


HAN 


A Chinese, relating to China ; 
name of a river ; the milliy 
way. 


HAN 


SO 
81 


m 


491 
930 


KWOH 
TUNG 


Same as 5. 

The spring of the year, east, 
eastward. 


COUNTRY 

to the 

EAST 


82 


— • 


721 


'RII 


Two ; the second ; to duplicate. 


TWICE 


83 


M 


1040 


WAN 


Ten thousand ; many ; an in- 
definite number. 


TEN THOUSAND 
or 


84 


m 


1121 


YtT 


The rest, the remnants, super- 
abundant. 


MORE 


35 


a 


518 


LI 


A Chinese mile, which has 
been of various lengths, 
from 1,158 to 1,894 feet. 


LI 

(Chinese miles). 
That 


3G 


ttii 


879 


TI 


The earth, a place, land. 


PLACE 


37 

8S 


^ 
* 


941 

105 


TSAI 
CHUNG 


Same as 27. 

The middle, center. 


IS SITUATED 

at the 

MIDDLE 


89 


It 


491 


KWOH 


Same as 5. 


COUNTRY 


40 


z 


53 


CHI 


Sign of the genitive case. 


'S 


41 


m 


930 


TUNG 


Same as 31. 


EAST. 


42 


-ir 


342 


K'l 


Same as 12. 


THAT 


43 
44 


+. 


920 
909 


T'U 
TO 


The earth, a region, place. 
Numerous, many, often. 


REGION 

has 

MANY 


45 


t^ 


144 


FU 


Same as 1. 


FU- 


46 


# 


724 


SANG 


Same as 2. 


SANG 


47 
48 




607 
434 


MUH 
KU 


Wood, a tree. 

The cause, because, for, for- 
merly, old. 


TREES, 

and it is 

BECAUSE 



02 

o 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 265 



The kingdom of Fusang is situated twenty thousand li to the east of 
the country of Tahan. It is also east of China. It produces a great 
number of trees called fusang, 



Fusang is twenty thousand li to the east of the country of Tahan^ and 
equally to the east of China. In this country there grow many trees 
called fusans. 



Fusang is about twenty thousand Chinese miles distant from Ta-han 
in an easterly direction. The land lies easterly from the Middle King- 
dom. Ma,uj fusang trees grow here, 



The country of Fou-so is situated at the east of the country of Tai-kan. 
According to the authority of the work entitled Toung-tien, Fou-s6 is dis- 
tant from the country of Tai-kan in an easterly direction about 20,000 li. 
It is placed to the east of the " Middle Kingdom " (China). Many trees, 
called Fou-so-mok (Hibiscus rosa sinensis), are found there. (In Japanese, 
" SONO TSOUTSi Ni Fou-s6-MOK oNosi," " In hanc terrara fou-so [sic vocati] 
arbores multi sunt "), 



This kingdom is situated about twenty thousand li to the east of the 
kingdom of Ta-han. This country is to the east of the Middle Kingdom. 
It produces a great number of fusang trees, 



Fusang is situated more than twenty thousand li to the east of the 
kingdom of Ta-han, and is equally to the east of China. It contains 
many fu-sang trees. 



Fusang lies east of the kingdom of Ta-han more than twenty thou- 
sand li; it is also east of the Middle Kingdom. It produces many fu- 
sang trees, 



Fu-SANG is situated twice ten thousand li (Chinese miles) or more to 
the east of the Great Han country. That land is also situated at the east 
of the Middle Kingdom (China). That region has many fu-sang trees, 
and it is from 



266 



AX INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 



49 



CharactV 



« 



Page. 



50 
61 

52 
53 
54 
55 
56 

57 

58 

59 
60 

61 
62 
63 
64 

65 
60 
67 
68 
69 

70 
71 

72 






m 






A 



in 



/•^fi 



S: 

i 



278 

1047 
600 
144 
724 

1081 
837 
934 

91 

742 

297 
813 

491 

286 

766 

53 

769 

297 
515 
719 

72 

986 
342 
679 



Sound. 



Definition. 



MING 

FU 
SANG 
YEII 

SZ' 
T'UNG 

ciru 
sriiNG 

SItJN 

KWOH 

JAN 

SHIH 

cm 

sum 
j& 

LI 
'EH 

cn'iii 
TSin 

K'l 

P'l 



By means of, to ~ 
use, using, tak- 
ing, to serve 
one's self with. 

To do, to make. 



Because ; to 
consider as, 
' to regard, 
to be of the 
opinion. 



A name, a title, famous. 
Same as 1. 

(( (( o 

The leaves of plants. 

Like, appearing, resembling. 

The name of a tree. (As this 
character differs from the 
one given in the Liang Shu, 
the true reading is uncertain.) 

To begin, the first. 

To produce, bear, grow, come 
forth. 

As, like, to equal. 

The tender shoots of bamboo. 

Same as 5. 

A human being. 

To eat or drink, take food. 

Same as 40. A pronoun in 
the accusative. 

Fruit of plants ; real, solid. 

Same as 59. 

A pear. 

And, if, still, on the contrary. 

A reddish carnation ; light-red 
colour. 

To spin thread. 

Same as 12. 

Skin, leather, a surface, bark. 



Translation. 



OF THESE 

trees that they 

GIVE 

the country its 

NAME. 
The FU- 

SANG 

's 

LEAVES 
RESEMBLE 



and the 

FIRST 

• SPROUTS 
are 
LIKE 

i BAMBOO 

'I SHOOTS. 

The 

COUNTRY 

's 

PEOPLE 

EAT 

THEM 

and the (or a) 

FRUIT 

which is 

LIKE 

a 

PEAR, 
BUT 

REDDISH. 

They 

SPIN THREAD 

from 

THEIR 



BARK, 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 267 



from which has come the name borne by the country. The leaves of the 
fmanff are similar to those of the tree which the Chinese call (onff. When 
they first appear, they resemble the shoots of the reeds called bamboos, 
and the people of the country eat them. The fruit has the form of a 
pear, and incUnes toward red in colour ; from its bark they make cloth. 



of which the leaves resemble those of the thmmg (Bignonia Tomentosa), 
and the first shoots those of the bamboo. The people of the country eat 
them. The bark of this tree is prepared in the same way as that of hemp, 



whose leaves resemble the Dryandra Cordifolia, but the sprouts, on the 
contrary, those of the bamboo, and these are eaten by the inhabitants of the 
land. The fruit in its form resembles a pear, but is red. A species of 
linen cloth is prepared from the bark. 



Tlieir leaves are similar to those of the to tree ; when they are young 
they are like bamboo sprouts, and the natives eat them. Their fruits are 
like pears, and of a red colour. The fibers of the bark are drawn out 



and it is from this fact that it derives its name. In its leaves, the fu- 
sang tree resembles the thong tree (Paullownia imperialis). When they 
commence to grow they are like the (edible) shoots of the bamboo. The 
inhabitants eat them. The fruits of this tree resemble pears, but they 
are red. They spin (the fibers of) the bark, 



and it is from this fact that its name is derived. The leaves of the fu- 
sang tree are similar to those of the long tree (according to Leland, the 
Dryanda cordata or Elctococca va-ncosa). When the fic-sang commences 
to grow, it resembles the young sprouts of the bamboo, and the inhabit- 
ants of the country eat it. Its fruit has the form of a pear, and is of a 
red colour. From its bark they make a cloth, 



from which it derives its name. The leaves of the fu-sang resemble those 
of the lung tree. It sprouts forth like the bamboo, and the people eat 
the shoots. Its fruit resembles the pear, but is red ; the bark is spun 



these trees that the country derives its name. The leaves of the fu-sang 

resemble ? and the first sprouts are like those of the bamboo. The 

people of the country eat them and the (or a) fruit, which is like a pear 
(in form), but of a reddish colour. They spin thread from their bark, 



2G8 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 

75 
76 
77 
78 
79 
80 
81 



82 
83 

84 
85 

86 

87 

88 
89 

90 

91 
92 
93 
94 
95 
96 



Charact'r Page. 



Ml 
Mi 






iiii- 

m 

115 



1047 
713 

278 
1047 

270 
1093 

278 
1047 

399 



1005 
651 

1064 

1059 

77 

492 

1113 
1041 

1032 

278 
144 
724 
679 

1047 
56 



Soucd. 



WEI 
PU 

I 
WEI 

I 
YIH 

I 
W^I 
KIN 



TSOH 
PAN 

wmi 
wu 

OiriNG 

Kwon 

YIU 
WiN 

TSZ' 

I 
ru 

SANG 

P'l 

WEI 

cm 



Definition. 



Same as 50. 

Cotton, linen, or hempen 
fabrics. 

Same as 49. 

" " 50. 
Clothes, garments. 
And, also. 
Same as 49. 

" " 50. 

A kind of thin brocade. 
The Liang-shu has here 
the character MIEN, ife, 
which signifies fine silk, 
soft. 

To act, to do, to make. 

A board, a plank for 
building adobe walls. 

A house, a cabin. 

None, not, destitute of. 

A citadel, a walled city. 

The second wall of a large 
city. 

Same as 14. 

Lines, marks, literature, 
literary. 

A character in writing; 
writing. 

Same as 49, 

" " 1 



l( (1 ho 



Translation. 



50 



Paper, stationery, a docu- 
ment. 



from which they 
MAKE 

CLOTH, 



OF WHICH 

they 

MAKE 

CLOTHING, 

AND 

OF WHICH 

they 

MAKE 

a 

FINER MATERIAL. 

They 



MAKE 
- with 

PLANKS OF THE 

KIND USED FOR 

BUILDING ADOBE 

WALLS, their 

HOUSES. 

They are 

DESTITUTE OF 

CITADELS 
and 

WALLED CITIES. 

They 

HAVE 

LITERARY 

CHARACTERS. 

They 

USE 

the 

FU- 

SANG 

BARK 

to 
MAKE 

PAPER. 



THE DESCRIPTION OF rU-SAN"G. 



269 



in 
I— t 

u 



O 

PL, 



and other stuffs with which the people clothe themselves, and the boards 
which are made from it are employed in the construction of their houses. 
No walled cities are found there. The people have a species of writin^r ' 



and cloth and clothing are made of it. Flowered stuffs are also manu- 
factured from it. Wooden planks are used for the construction of their 
houses, for in this country there are no cities, and no walled habitations. 
The inhabitants have a species of writing, and make paper from the bark 
of \h.Q fusang. 



and is used for clothmg, and a species of flowered tissue is also prepared 
from it. The houses are made of wooden beams. Fortified places and 
walled places are unknown. Written characters arc used in this land, 
and paper is made from the bark of the fu^ang. 



to make cloth, from which clothing is made. 

The planks of the tree are employed to build their houses. In this 
country there are no cities. The natives have a method of writing, and 
they make clothing {sic) from the bark of the fou-s6 tree. 



and from them make cloth to make their garments. 

They also make from them a species of brocade (mc). (The inhabitants) 
construct houses of planks. They have no walled cities. They have a 
writing, and make paper from the (fibers of the) bark of the fu-sang. 



suitable for making clothing, and also thinner fabrics, which have the 
appearance of silk. The houses are constructed of planks. Neither for- 
tified cities nor walled enclosures are found in Fusang ; but the people 
have a method of writing, and make paper from the bark of the fu-sang. 



into cloth for dresses ; and woven into brocade. The houses are made of 
planks. There are no walled cities with gates. The [people] use charac- 
ters and writing, making paper from the bark of the fu-sang. 



from which they make cloth, of which they make clothing. They also 
manufacture a finer fabric from it. In constructing their houses they use 
planks, such as are generally used when building adobe walls. They have 
no citadels or walled cities. They have literary characters, and make 
paper from the bark of the fu-sang. 



270 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Charact'r 


Page. 


97 


^ 
>i>« 


1059 


98 




698 


99 


f? 


355 


100 


Z> 


717 


101 


^M 


461 


102 


DDfi 


45 


103 


-Vr 


342 


104 


i 


491 


105 


ft 


123 


106 


W 


1113 


107 


1^ 


614 


108 


:1b 


709 


109 


m 


1139 


110 


^ 


296 


111 


m 


1113 


112 


ill 


128 


113 


Ix 


407 


114 


p 


1016 


115 


* 


38 


116 


A 


299 


117 


1% 


614 


118 


© 


1139 


119 


p 


1016 


120 


s 


108 



Sound. 



wu 

PING 

KIAH 

PUII 

KUNG 

CHEN 

K'l 

Kwon 

FAU 

YIU 

NAN 

POII 

YUH 
JO II 
YIU 
FAN 
KING 
TSUI. 

CUE 

jun 

NAN 

YUH 

TSUI 

CHUNG 



Definition. 



Same as 85. 

A soldier, troops, a weapon, 
military. 

Armour, a soldier, military. 

No, not. 

To attack, to fight with, to 
rouse. 

To join battle, a battle, war, 
military. 

Same as 12. 

" " 5. 

A law, a rule, a religion. 

Same as 14. 

The south, to go south, sum- 
mer. 

The north, to separate, op- 
pose. 

A prison, a jail. 

As, if, perhaps, like. 

Same as 14. 

To offend, violate ; a criminal. 

Light, not heavy, slight. 

Trespass, crime, sin ; pun- 
ishment. 

Same as 6. 

To enter, go into. 

Same as 107. 

" " 109. 

" " 114. . 
Heavy, weighty, important. 



Translation. 



They 
ARE DESTI- 
TUTE OF 
MILITARY 
WEAPONS 
and 

ARMOUR, 

and they do 
NOT 

WAGE 



WAR 

in 

THAT 

KINGDOM. 

According to their 

RULES 

(of law or religion) 
they 

HAVE 

a 

SOUTHERN 

and a 
NORTHERN 

( PLACE OF 
\ CONFINE- 
( MENT. 
IF 

they 

HAVE 

a 

CRIMINAL 

who has 

SLIGHTLY 
SINNED, 

HE 

ENTERS 

the 

SOUTHERN 

PRISON, 

but if his 

CRIME 
WEIGHS 



THE DESCEIPTION OF FU-SANG. 



271 



and they love peace. Two prisons, one placed in the south and the other 
in the north, are designed to confine their criminals, with this difference, 
that the most guilty 



They have no weapons or armies, and do not make war. According to 
the laws of the kingdom, there are a southern prison and a northern 
prison. Those who have committed crimes that are not very serious are 
sent to the southern prison, but great criminals 



The people have no weapons, and carry on no wars. According to the 
regulations of the kingdom, there exist, however, a southern and a north- 
ern prison. The petty transgressors are shut up in the southern, and the 
greater 



They have no offensive weapons or defensive armour, and do not wage wars 
between themselves. 



They have neither armour nor lances, and do not wage war. According to 
the laws of the kingdom, there are two prisons, that of the south and that 
of the north. Those who have committed a misdemeanour of small mag- 
nitude are confined in the southern prison ; and those who have committed 
a crime 



They have no soldiers, and no thought of making war. According to the 
laws of their kingdom, there exist a northern prison and a southern pris- 
on. Those who have committed crimes of little gravity are sent to the 
southern prison, while the great criminals 



There are no mailed soldiers, for they do not carry on war. The law of 
the land prescribes a southern and a northern prison. Criminals convicted 
of light crimes are put into the former, and those guilty of grievous of- 
fences 



They have no military weapons or armour, and they do not wage war in 
that kingdom. 

According to their rules (of government or of religion) they have a 
southern and a northern place of confinement. An offender who has 
transgressed but slightly enters the southern place of confinement, but 
if he has sinned heavily 



272 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


121 


# 


38 


CHE 


Same as 6. 


HE 


122 
123 


A 

it 


299 
709 


JUH 
POH 


" " 116. 
" " 108. 


ENTERS 

the 

NORTHERN 


124 
125 




1139 
1113 


Yun 

YIU 


" " 109. 
" " 14. 


PRISON. 

If he may 

HAVE 


126 


m 


748 


SUE 


To remit punishment, par- 
don, forgive. 


PARDON, 


127 


m 


956 


TSEH 


A rule, law, precept; be- 
cause, then. 


THEN 

he is 


128 


1^ 


135 


FANG 


To let go, liberate ; indulge ; 
to send away. 


SENT AWAY 

to 

(or possibly from 

the) 

SOUTHERN 


129 


614 


NAN 


Same as 107. 


130 
131 


m 


1139 

717 


YUH 

pmi 


" " 109. 
" " 100. 


PRISON, 

. but if there is 

NO 


132 
133 
134 
135 
136 




748 
38 
956 
135 
709 


SHE 

CHE 

TSEH 

FANG 

roH 


" " 126. 
" " 6. 
" " 127. 
" " 128. 
" " 108. 


These three 
words are not 
found in the 
text of Ma 
Twan-lin. They 
are i n s e r te d 
here on the 
authority of Mr. 
^KwongKiChiu. 


PARDON 

for 

HIM, 

THEN 
he is 

SENT AWAY 

to the 

NORTHERN 


137 
138 
139 


m 

4t 


1139 
941 
709 


YUH 
TSAI 
POH 


" " 109. 

" " 27. 
" " 108. 


PRISON. 

The 

DWELLERS 

in the 
NORTHERN 


140 


m 


1139 


YUH 


" " 109. 


PRISON, 


141 


m 


38 


CHE 


" " 6. 


THOSE 


142 


J? 


614 


NAN 


The male of the human spe- 
cies, a man, a son. 


MEN 

and 


143 


± 


641 


Nt 


Women, a lady, a wife, 
young. 


WOMEN, 

when they (have) 


144 


* 


790 


SIANG 


Mutually, toge 
to examine. 


ther, to assist, 
look at. 


TOGETHER 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 273 



02 

o 
o 



are placed in the northern prison, and are afterward transferred into that 
of the south, if they obtain their pardon ; otherwise they are condemned 
to remain all their lives in the first. 
They are permitted to 



are shut up in the northern one. Those who may receive their pardon 
are sent to the first ; those, on the contrary, to whom it can not be ac- 
corded, are confined in the northern prison. The men and the women 
who arc shut up in the latter are permitted to 



in the northern prison, so that those who may be pardoned are placed in 
the southern jail, while, upon the contrary, those as to whom this is not 
the case are confined in the northern prison. The men and women con- 
fined here for life are allowed to 



(Not translated.) 



in the northern prison. If the culprit obtains pardon, he is put in the 
southern prison, and if he does not obtain pardon, he is put in the 
northern prison. In the northern prison, which receives criminals of the 
two sexes, if a man and woman 



are confined in the northern prison, in such a manner that the southern 
prison receives those who may obtain pardon, while those who can not be 
pardoned are placed in the northern prison, from which they can never be 
released. Among the prisoners of the two sexes of the northern prison 



into the latter. Criminals, when pardoned, are let out of the southern 
prison ; but those in the northern prison are not pardoned. Prisoners in 
the latter 



he enters the northern place of confinement. If there is pardon for 
him, then he is sent away to (or, possibly, from) the southern place of con- 
finement, but if he can not be pardoned, then he is sent away to the 
northern one. Those men and women dwelling in the northern place of 
confinement, when they 
18 



274 



AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


rage. 


Sound. 


1 
Definition. 


Translation. 


145 


iE 


672 


P'EI 


A mate, a companion, as a 


MATE 








wife; to pair, to mate. 


(d) 










equal. 


and 


146 


^ 


742 


SHlNG 


Same as 58. 


BEAR 










(or have borne) 


147 


^ 


614 


NAN 


" " 142. 


MALE 










children ; at 


148 


A 


64V 


PAH 


Eight. 


EIGHT 


149 


m 


827 


SUI 


A year of one's age, age, 
years, yearly. 


YEARS 

of age they 


150 


■M 


1047 


WEI 


Same as 50. 


MAKE 

them 


151 


M 


640 


NU 


A slave. 


SLAVES, 










but if they 


152 


^ 


742 


SHiNG 


Same as 58. 


BEAR 










(or have borne) 


153 


:k 


641 


NiJ 


" " 143. 


FEMALE 










children, at 


154 


% 


413 


KIU 


Nine, many, deep. 


NINE 


155 


M\i 


827 


SUI 


Same as 149. 


YEARS 

of age they 


156 


1047 


WEI 


" " 50. 


MAKE 












them 


157 


m 


676 


n 


A maid-servant ; an unmar- 
ried female slave. 


j FEMALE 
\ SLAVES. 

The 


158 


€ 
w 


128 


FAN 


Same as 112. L To transgress, 


) 








-| to commit a 
" " 114. ( crime ; guilty. 


y GUILTY 


159 


1016 


TSUI 


) 


160 


z 


53 


CHI 


" " 40. 


'S 


161 


# 


735 


snlN 


The trunk, the body. 


BODY 


162 


^ 


60 


CHI 


Same as 20. 


UNTIL 

(or at) 


163 


^fc 


836 


SZ' 


Death, to die. 


DEATH 
does 


164 


)(- 


717 


PUH 


Same as 100. 


NOT 


165 


ffi 


98 


CH'UH 


To go forth, to go out. 


GO FORTH. 










When a 


166 


* 


484 


KWEII 


Honourable, noble, good. 


NOBLE 


167 


A 


286 


jiN 


Same as 62. 


MAN 


168 


^ 


1113 


YIU 


" " 14. 


HAS 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 275 



marry, but their children are made slaves. When criminals are found 
occupying one of the principal ranks in the nation 



marry each other. The male children born from these unions are sold as 
slaves at the age of eight years ; the girls at the age of nine years- The 
criminals who are confined there never come forth alive. 
When a man of high rank 



marry. The boys born of these marriages become slaves when eight 
years old, but the girls not until they have passed their ninth year. 
When a man of hisrh rank 



(Not translated.) 



have commerce with each other, and, if a boy is bom, he is enslaved at 
the age of eight years ; if a girl is born, she is enslaved at the age of nine 
years. The men who have committed a crime remain in prison until their 
death. When a nobleman 



marriages are permitted. The children which are born of these unions 
become slaves, the boys at the age of eight )'ears, and the girls at the age 
of nine years. When a person of elevated rank 



marry. Their boys become bondmen when eight years old, and the girls 
bondwomen when nine years old. Convicted criminals are not allowed to 
leave their prison while alive. When a nobleman (or an official) has 



mate (or have mated) and bear (or have borne) children ; the boys are 
made slaves at the age of eight years, and the girls at the age of nine 
years. The criminal (or the criminal's body) is not allowed to go out up 
to (or at) the time of his death. When a nobleman has 



276 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


169 


P 


1016 


TSUI 


Same as 114. 


TRANSGRESSED, 

the 
COUNTRY 


170 


1^1 


491 


Kwon 


" " 6. 


171 
172 


A 


286 
839 


JAN 
TA 


" " 62. 
" " 28. 


PEOPLE, 

in a 
GREAT 


173 




264 


HWUI 


To collect, assemble ; an as- 
sembly, meeting. 


ASSEMBLY^, 


174 
175 




1002 
1016 


TSO 
TSUI 


To sit, squat, kneel ; to sit 
in judgment on. 

Same as 114. 


SIT 

in judgment 

on the 

TRANSGRESSING 


176 


A 


286 


JlN 


" " 62. 


MAN, 


177 

178 




1118 
323 


YIJ 
K'ANG 


A preposition, in, at, on, 
with, by, to be in, to oc- 
cupy a position. 

A ditch, excavation, pit; 
a tumulus. 


IN 

an 

j EXCAVATED 
\ TUMULUS. 


179 


n 


924 


TUI 


To front, opposite, to re- 
spond, a sign of the da- 
tive. 


IN FRONT OF 


180 
181 


z 


53 
1090 


cm 

YEN 


Same as 40. 

A feast, a banquet, merri- 
ment. 


HIM 

they 

FEAST 

and 


182 


«: 


1102 


YIN 


To drink, to receive, con- 
cealed. 


DRINK, 

and 


183 


» 


129 


rlN 


To separate, divide, share, 
distribute. 


SEPARATE 

from him 


184 


Wk 


447 


KUEH 


Parting or dying words, a 
farewell, to take leave. 


TAKING LEAVE 

of him 


185 
186 




296 
836 


JOH 
SZ' 


Same as 110. 
" " 163. 


AS 
if from a 
DYING 


187 


m 


684 


PIEH 


To separate, divide, to 
part, to leave, a parting, 
moreover. 


SEPARATING 


188 


S 


1082 


YEN 


A final affirmative particle. 


TRULY^ 


189 


ja 


278 


I 


Same as 49. 


WITH 


190 


K 


260 


HWUI 


Ashes, embers, lime, dust. 


ASHES 
they 


191 


m 


292 


JAO 


To wind around, to be en- 
tangled in, to go about, 
to environ. 


SURROUND 


192 


z 


53 


CHI 


Same as 40. 


HIM 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 2Y7 



the other chiefs assemble around them ; they place thorn in a ditch, and 
hold a great feast in their presence. They are then judged. Those who 
have merited death are buried alive in ashes, 



commits a crime, the people assemble in great numbers. They sit down 
face to face with the criminal, who is placed in a ditch, and regale them- 
selves with a banquet, and take leave of him as of a dving man. Then 
he is surrounded by ashes. 



commits a crime, a great assembly of the people of the kingdom is called, 
and a banquet is held in the presence of the criminal, which takes place 
in an excavation. There they bestrew him with ashes, and take leave of 
him as of a dying person. 



(Not translated.) 



commits a crime, the inhabitants gather together in a great assembly. 
The culprit is placed in a subterraneous place, and food and drink are 
placed before him ; then they take leave of him as when one takes leave 
of one that is dead. He is surrounded with ashes. 



commits a crime, the people of the kingdom assemble in great numbers, 
place the criminal in an excavation, celebrate a banquet in his presence, 
and take leave of him as of a dying man. Then he is surrounded with 
ashes. 



been convicted of crime, the great assembly of the nation meets and 
places the criminal in a hollow (or pit) ; they set a feast, with wine, be- 
fore him, and then take leave of him. If the sentence is a capital one, 
at the time they separate they surround (the body) with ashes. 



committed a crime, the people of the country hold a great assemblage and 
sit in judgment on the culprit, in an excavated tumulus. They feast and 
drink before him, and bid him farewell when parting from him, as if 
taking leave of a dying man. Then they surround him with ashes 



278 



AN INGLORIOtJS COLUMBUS. 



No. Character. 



193 
194 
195 

196 
197 
198 
199 

200 

201 
202 
203 
204 
205 

203 
207 

208 
209 
210 
211 
212 
213 

214 

215 
216 



ifi: 






m 
» 



m 



342 

1095 

108 

956 

1095 

735 

702 



926 

721 
108 
956 
735 
394 

1030 
829 

723 
108 
38 
956 
394 
987 

763 

600 
491 



Sound. 



K'l 

YIH 

CHUNG 

TSEH 
YIH 

shIn 

FING 



T'UI 

'RH 

CHUNG 

TSEH 

shIn 

KIH 

TSZ' 

SUN 

SAN 
CHUNG 

ch6 

TSEH 
KIH 
TS'IH 

SHI 

MING 
KWOH 



Definition. 



Same as 12. 

One, the first, the same. 

Same as 120. To repeat, to 
add, a time, again, a classi- 
fier of thickness or layers. 

Same as 127. 

" " 194. 

" " 161. 



A screen-wall, a de- ' 
fence, to hide, to 
expel, to reject; to 
spoil, as robbers. 



To 
keep 
back. 



To retreat, draw back, 
abate, yield. 

Same as 32. 
" " 120. 
" " 127. 
" " 161. 

To effect, to reach to, to im- 
plicate, also, concerning. 

A child, a son, a boy, an heir. 

A grandson, a grandchild, 
suckers. 

Three, thrice, several. 
Same as 120. 

" " 6. 

" " 205. 
Seven. 

An age, a generation; the 
world ; times, seasons. 

Same as 51. 

" " 5. 



Translation. 



THERE. 

If of 

ONE 
WEIGHT, 



THEN 
ONE 

BODY 

(or person) was 

HIDDEN 



AWAY. 

If of 

DOUBLE 

WEIGHT, 

THEN 

the 
BODIES 

were 

IMBLICATED 

of the 

CHILDREN 
and 
GRANDCHIL- 
DREN. 
If of 

TRIPLE 

WEIGHT, 

of 

THOSE 

THEN 

were 

IMPLICATED 

SEVEN 

GENERATIONS. 

The 

TITLE 

of the 

COUNTRY 

's 



THE DESCEIPTION OF FU-SANG. 2Y9 



and their posterity is punished according to the magnitude of the crime. 



For an offense of little gravity, the criminal alone is punished, but for 
a great crime, the culprit, his sons, and grandsons, are punished ; finally, 
for the greatest offenses, his descendants to the seventh generation are 
included in the punishment. 



If the transgressor is of low rank, he alone is punished ; if of higher 
rank, the punishment falls upon his children and grandchildren also, and, 
if of the highest rank, the punishment reaches to the seventh generation. 



(Not translated.) 



If a man has committed a grave crime, he alone is cut off from society. 
If he has committed two grave crimes, the same punishment is visited 
also upon his children and his nephews ; if he has committed three, this 
punishment is extended to the seventh generation. 



If the crime is only one of the first degree, the criminal alone is pun- 
ished ; if the crime is of the second degree, his children and grandchild- 
ren are punished with him ; and, finally, if the crime is of the third degree, 
the descendants of the criminal to the seventh generation are included in 
his chastisement. 



For crimes of the first grade, the sentence involves only the person of 
the culprit ; for the second, it reaches the children and grandchildren ; 
while the third extends to the seventh generation. 



there. For a single crime (or a crime of the first magnitude), only one 
person (the culprit) was hidden (or sent) away. For two crimes (or a 
crime of the second magnitude), the children and grandchildren were 
included in the punishment. For three crimes (or a crime of the third 
magnitude), seven generations were included in the punishment. 



280 



A^ INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


217 


T 


1043 


WANG 


A king, a ruler, royal, to be 
a king. 


KING 

is 


218 
219 


Ml 


1047 
1096 


WEI 
YIU 


Same as 50. 

One; bent; often used as a 
pedantic form of — YIH, 
meaning, one, the first. 


MADE 

the 

CHIEF 

of the 


220 


% 


345 


K'l 


Full, abundant, very, large, 
numerous, multitudes, a 
crowd of people. 


MULTITUDES. 

The 


221 


ft 


484 


KWEI 


Same as 166. 


NOBLE 


222 
223 


A 

5B 


286 
879 


JAN 
TI 


" " 62. 

A series, an order. Placed 
before figures, it forms the 
ordinal numbers. 


MEN 

of the 

\ FIRST 


224 
225 


* 


1095 
38 


YIH 
CHE. 


Same as 194. 
" " 6. 


rank, 

THESE 

are 


226 


Mi 


1047 


WEI 


" " 50. 


MADE 


227 


m 


924 


TUI 


" " 179. 


TUI- 


228 


jk 


554 


LU 


A vessel for containing rice, 
a fire-pan, a grog-shop, 
black. 


LU; 

of the 


229 
230 
231 




879 

721 

38 


TI 
'RH 

CHE 


Same as 223. 
" " 32. 
" " 6. 


[ SECOND 

r.ank, 
THESE 

ar6 


232 


Mi 


1047 


WEI 


" " 50. 


MADE 


233 


A- 


795 


SIAO 


Small, little, inferior. 


LITTLE 


234 


m 


924 


TUI 


Same as 179. 


TUI- 


235 
236 
237 


kK 


554 
879 
723 


LU 
TI 

SAN 


11 (( 09Q 

" " 223. 
" " 208. 


LU; 

of the 

I THIRD 
; rank. 


238 
239 




38 
1047 


CHE 
WEI 


" " 6. 
" " 50. 


THESE 
are 

MJlDE 


240 


m 


611 


NAH 


To enter, to receive, to insert, 
within. 


NAH- 



o 



THE DESCEIPTION OF FU-SANG. 281 



The king bears the title of noble Y-chi, the nobles of the nation after 
him are the great and petty Touy-lou, and the 



The name of the king of the country is Y-khi (or Yit-khi). The nobles 
of the first class are called Toui-lou ; those of the second, little Toui-lou ; 
and those of the third 



The name of the king is pronounced "/e/ij "/ the nobles of the first 
class are called ''Tuilu'\- the second class, ''LiUle Tui-lu'\- and those of 
the third class 



They give to their king the name of Eiki-ziu, that is to say, " the most 
honourable man," 



The king is called I-ki. The nobles of the first class are the Toui-lou; 
those of the second class, the little Toui-lou ; those of the third class the 



The king is called Y-ki. The nobility of the first class are called ioui- 
lou ; those of the second class, little toui-lou ; and those of the third class 



The king of this country is termed yueh-ki ; the highest rank of nobles 
is called tui-lu ; the next, little iui-lu ; and the lowest. 



The title of the king of the country is " The chief of the multitudes." 
The noblemen of the first rank are called " Tni-lu "; those of the second 
rank, " Little Tui-lu "/ and those of the third rank. 



282 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


241 


Bin 


921 


TUH 


To speak to one another, to 
talk. 


TUH 


242 


fP 


730 


SHA 


Same as 15. 


SHA. 
The 


243 


m 


491 


KWOH 


" " 5. 


COUNTRY 


244 
245 

246 




1043 
207 

1113 


WANG 
HING 

YIU 


" " 217. 

To step, to go to walk, to act, 
to do. 

Same as 14. 


KING, 

when he 
WALKS 

abroad, 

HAS 


247 


tk 


434 


KU 


A drum, to drum, to excite. 


DRUMS 

and 
HORNS 


248 


-^ 


409 


KIOH 


A horn, a corner, to gore. 


249 


sf, 


867 


TAO 


To lead, to conduct. 


LEADING 


250 


# 


1024 


TS'UNG 


A clan, a family, posterity, to 
follow, followers. 


FOLLOWING. 


251 


-tt- 


342 


K'l 


Same as 12. 


HIS 


252 


^ 


270 


I 


" " 77. 


CLOTHES 


253 

254 


m 


727 
826 


SEU 
SUI 


Air, manner, form, colour, 
hue, complexion, mode, 
sort, glory, beauty. 

To accord, to follow, to com- 
ply with, according to. 


COLOUR, 

ACCORDING TO 

the 


255 


¥ 


634 


NIEN 


Same as 11. 


YEARS' 


256 


ife 


307 


KAI 


To change, to alter, to amend, 
to correct. 


CHANGES, 


257 


M 


281 


YIH 


The mutations or alterations 
in nature, as of the sun or 
moon; to change. 


IS CHANGED. 

The 


258 


f 


355 


KIAH 


Same as 99. The first year of 
the cycle. 


FIRST 

and 


259 


L 


1096 


YIH 


Same as 219. The second year 
of the cycle. 


SECOND 


260 
261 


¥ 


634 
995 


NIEN 
TS'ING 


Same as 11. 

The green of plants or the 
blue of the sky. 


YEARS, 

they are 

BLUE 

(or green) ; 

the 


262 


pg 


699 


PING 


The third of the ten stems. 


THIRD 


263 


T 


903 


TING 


The fourth of the ten stems. 


FOURTH 


264 


¥ 


634 


NIEN 


Same as 11. 


YEARS, 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 283 



Na-to-cha. The prince is preceded by drums and horns when he goes 
abroad. He changes the colour of his garments every year. 



Naiu-cha. When the king goes forth, he is accompanied by drums and 
horns. He changes the colour of his garments at different epochs. In 
the years of the cycle kia and i, they are blue ; in the years ping and 
ting, 



"JVa-(o-scha." When the prince goes out he is accompanied by drums and 
horns. The colour of his clothes is different in different years. In the 
two first of the ten-year cycle they are blue ; in the next two, 



When the latter walks abroad he is accompanied by drums and trumpets. 
At different periods of the year he changes the colour of his garments. In 
the cyclic years kia and i, they are blue ; in the years ping and ting, they 
are 



Na-to-cha. When the king goes forth, he is accompanied with drums and 
horns. The colour of his garments is changed according to the years. In 
the years marked with the cyclic signs Kia and I they are green ; in the 
years marked with the cyclic signs Ping and Ting they are 



na-to-cha. When the king goes abroad he is accompanied with drums and 
trumpets, which precede and follow him. He changes the colour of his 
garments according to the order of the years. In the years (of the cycle 
called) kia and y his garments are of a blue or green colour. In the years 
ping and ting they are of a 



no-chasha. When the king goes abroad he is preceded and followed by 
drummers and trumpeters. The color of his robes varies with the years 
in the cycle containing the ten stems. It is azure in the first two years ; 
in the second two years it is 



NAH-TO-SHA. The king of the country, when he walks abroad, is pre- 
ceded and followed with drums and horns. The colour of his garments is 
changed according to the mutations of the years. The first and second 
years (of a ten-year cycle) they are blue (or green) ; the third and fourth 
years they are 



284: 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


265 


* 


72 


CH'IH 


Same as 69. 


RED; 

the 


266 


iS 


1063 


WU 


The fifth of the ten stems. 


FIFTH 

and 


267 


a 


337 


KI 


The sixth of the ten stems. 


SIXTH 


268 


^ 


634 


NIEN 


Same as 11. 


YEARS 


269 
270 


^ 

^ 


252 
321 


HWANG 
KlNG 


The colour of earth, yellow. 
The seventh of the ten stems. 


YELLOW; 

the 

SEVENTH 

and 


271 


* 


806 


SIN 


The eighth of the ten stems. 


EIGHTH 


272 


¥ 


634 


NIEN 


Same as 11. 


YEARS 


273 


a 


706 


POH 


White, clear, bright, pure. 


WHITE ; 

the 


274 

275 


i 

^ 


287 
483 


JAN 
KWEI 


The ninth of the ten stems. 
The last of the ten stems. 


NINTH 

and 
TENTH 


276 


¥ 


634 


NlEN 


Same as 11. 


YEARS 


277 
278 




218 
1113 


HOH 

yiu 


Black, dark. 
Same as 14. 


BLACK. 

They 

HAVE 


279 


^ 


638 


NIU 


An ox, a cow, a bull, cattle, 
some kinds of deer. 


CATTLE- 


280 


% 


409 


KIOH 


Same as 248. 


HORNS ; 

the 


281 


M 


27 


CH'ANG 


Long, in time or distance, 
constantly, direct, straight, 
old, to grow, too heavy. 


LONG 

ones are 


282 

283 


« 

« 


278 
409 


I 
KIOH 


Same as 49. 
" " 248. 


USED 
of the 

HORNS 


28-t 


« 


941 


TSAI 


A year, to contain, to fill in, 
to bear. 


TO CONTAIN 


283 


!f^ 


1065 


WUH 


A thing, matter, substance, 
an article, goods. 


THINGS. 

They 


286 


^ 


60 


CHI 


Same as 20. 


REACH 

the 


287 


1^ 


771 


SHING 


To bear, to sustain, to raise, 
to conquer, to excel, supe- 
rior, best, excellent, to add. 


BEST 

of them, to 


288 


— ' 


721 


'RH 


Same as 32. 


TWICE 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 285 



The cattle of the country bear a considerable weight upon their horns. 



red ; in the years ou and hi, yellow ; in the years keng and sin, white ; 
finally, in those which have the characters jin and koitei, they are blacli. 
The cattle have long horns, upon which burdens are loaded which weigh 
as much sometimes as 



red ; in the two following years, white ; and in the two last, black. The 
oxen have such large horns that they contain as much as ten sheepskins ; 
the people use them to keep all kinds of goods. 



red, etc. 



red ; in the years marked with the signs Meou and Sse, they are yellow ; 
in the years marked with the cyclic signs Keng and Sin, they are white ; 
in the years marked with the signs Jin and Kouei, they are black. They 
have cattle whose horns are very long, and who bear upon their horns a 
weight as great as 



of a red colour ; they are of a yellow colour in the years ou and ki; of a 
white colour in the years keng and sin; and of a black colour in the years 
jin and kouei. Ox-horns are found in Fusang so large that their capacity 
is sometimes as great as two 



red ; it is yellow in the third ; white in the fourth ; and black in the last 
two years. There are oxen with long horns, so long that they will hold 
things — the biggest as much as 



red ; the fifth and sixth years, yellow ; the seventh and eighth years, 
white ; and the ninth and tenth years, black. They have cattle- horns, of 
which the long ones are used to contain (some of their) possessions, the 
best of them reaching (a capacity of) twice 



286 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Dharacter. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


289 


+ 


'768 


SHIII 


Ten. 


TEN 










times as much 




M 








as an ordinary 


290 


233 


nuH 


(From a peck measure and a horn.) 


HORN-MEAS- 








The Chinese bushel, holding ten 


URE. 










pecks, or a picul, according to 










some : but the common table 












makes it measure five pecks, or 


They 










half a picul. At Shanghai the 










huh for rice holds only 2'05 pints, 












and that for peas, !■ SO pint. The 




291 


-H 


1113 


YIU 

^Same as 14) 


Buddhists use it for a full picul 
of 133X lbs., av., but the Hindu 
drona, which the huh represents, 
weighs only 7 lbs. 11 oz., av. 


HAVE 


292 


<n^ 


571 


MA 


A horse, warlike, quick as a 
horse. 


HORSE- 


293 


4=- 


39 


CE'E 


A wheeled carriage, a cart. 


CARTS, 


294 


638 


NIU 


Same as 279. 


CATTLE- 


295 


m 


39 


CH'E 


» " 293. 


CARTS, 
and 


296 


m 


562 


Lun 


A deer, especially the males ; 


DEER- 








stags which have horns. 




29? 


m 


39 


CH'E 


Same as 293. 


CARTS. 

The 


298 


|ii 


491 


KWOH 


" " 5. 


COUNTRY 


299 


A 


286 


jlN 


" " 62. 


PEOPLE 


300 




1072 


YANG 


To nourish, rear, bring up, 
tame ; to raise, educate. 


RAISE 


301 


m 


562 


LUH 


Same as 296. 


DEER 


302 


ita 


297 


jCr 


" " 59. 


AS 
in the 


303 


<¥ 


105 


CHUNG 


" " 38. 


MIDDLE 


304 


m 


491 


KWOH 


" " 5. 


KINGDOM 

thev 


305 




98 


CH'UH 


To rear, to feed, to raise, to 


RAISE 








domesticate. 




306 


4^ 


638 


NIU 


Same as 279. 


CATTLE. 


SOT 


278 


I 


" " 49. 


FROM 


308 


ft 


298 


jij 


Milk, milky, the breasts, the 


MILK 








nipple ; to suck, to nurse. 


they 


309 


M^ 


1047 


WEI 


Same as 50. 


MAKE 


310 


m 


553 


LOH 


Cream, dried milk, racky [kou- 


KOUMISS. 




n 






miss] from mare's milk. 


They 


311 


1113 


YIU 


Same as 14. 


HAVE 

the 
RED 


312 


*> 


72 


CH'IH 


" " 69. 



TEE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 287 



They are harnessed to wagons. Horses and deer are also employed for 
this purpose. The inhabitants feed hinds, as in China, and from them 
they obtain butter. A species of red 



twenty ho (of 120 Chinese pounds). In this country they make use of 
carts harnessed to cattle, horses, and deer. They rear deer there as they 
raise cattle in China, and make cheese from the milk of the females. 
A species of red 



Horses, oxen, and deer are also harnessed to wagons. Deer are raised 
here as cattle are in the " Middle Kingdom," and from the milk of the 
hinds butter is made. The red 



The natives raise deer, as cattle are raised, and make creamy dishes 
from the milk of the animals. 



twenty ho (the ho is a measure of ten bushels). 

They have carts drawn by horses, cattle, and deer. The inhabitants 
raise deer as cattle are raised in China. They make cheeses from milk. 
There is a species of red 



hundred bushels. They are used to contain all sorts of things. Carriages 
also may be seen, to which horses, cattle, and deer are harnessed. The 
inhabitants raise deer as cattle are raised in China ; the milk of the hinds 
makes part of their food. They gather the red 



five pecks. Vehicles are drawn by oxen, horses, and deer ; for the people 
of that land rear deer just as the Chinese rear cattle, and make cream of 
their milk. They have red 



ten times as much as the capacity of a common horn. They have horse- 
carts, cattle-carts, and deer-carts. The people of the country raise deer 
as cattle are raised in the Middle Kingdom (China). From milk they 
make koumiss. They have the red 



288 



AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


313 


m 


515 


LI 


Same as 67. 


PEARS 


314 


u 


404 


KING 


The warp ; to pass through ; 
laws ; religious manuals. 


THROUGH- 

out the 


315 


^ 


634 


NIEN 


Same as 11. 


YEAR 


316 


^- 


717 


PUH 


" " 100. 


UN- 


317 


^ 


244 


HWAI 


Going or gone to ruin, to 
spoil, to injure, to perish, 
spoiled, useless. 


SPOILED, 
and 


318 


^ 


909 


TO 


Same as 44. Many ; numer- 


TO 


319 


m 


715 


P'U 


ous. 

The cat-tail rush, the cala- 
mus, or sweet-flag. 


P'U- 


320 


m 


870 


T'AO 


A peach, a nectarine, a flower- 
bud. 


T'AO- 

68. 


321 


-IT 


342 


K'l 


Same as 12. 


ITS 


322 


tti 


879 


TI 


" " 36. 


GROUND 


323 




1059 


WU 


" " 85. 


DESTITUTE OF 


324 
325 


m 


893 
1113 


T'lEH 
YIU 


Iron, made of iron, firm. 
Same as 14. 


IRON, 

but It 
HAS 


326 
327 


m 


934 

717 


T'UNG 
PUH 


Copper, brazen, coppery. 
Same as 100. 


COPPER. 

They do 
NOT 


328 


n 


484 


KWEI 


" " 166, 


VALUE 


829 


♦ 


393 


KIN 


Gold, gilded, yellow, precious. 


GOLD 
or 


330 


1^ 


1101 


YIN 


Silver, money, wealth. 


SILVER. 

Their 


331 


762 


SHI 


A market, crowded, vulgar, 
to trade, salable. 


MARKETS 

are 


332 


inn 


1059 


WU 


Same as 85. 


DESTITUTE OF 


333 


1 


1007 


TSU 


Rent or tax in kind from 
fields ; rental ; income ; . 
taxes. 


TAXES 
and 


334 


m 


433 


KU 


To estimate, reckon, guess, 
think, set a price on ; value, 
worth, price. 


FIXED PRICES. 

When 


335 


if 


342 


K'l 


Same as 12. 


THEY 


336 


m 


268 


HWUN 


A bridegroom, a husband, to 
marry a wife. 


MARRY, 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 280 



pear is found there, which is kept for a year without spoiling ; also the 
iris, and peaches, and copper in great abundance. They have no iron, 
and gold and silver are not valued. He who wishes to marry 



pear is found there which is preserved throughout the year. There are 
also many vines. Iron is lacking, but copper is found. Gold and silver 
are not esteemed. Commerce is free, and they do not haggle at all. 
• The practices regarding marriages are as follows : 



pears of the fusang trees keep good throughout the whole year. In addi- 
tion, there are many apples and reeds, mats being made from the last. 
There is no iron in this country, but copper is found. Gold and silver are 
not valued, and do not serve as the medium of exchange in the markets. 
Marriages are concluded in the following manner : 



In this country there is no iron, but there is copper. Gold and silver 
are not valued. In the markets no duties are levied. 



pear which can be preserved for a year without spoiling. There are many 
grapes. No mines of iron exist, but copper is very abundant. The in- 
habitants do not esteem either gold or silver. The public markets are 
not subject to any duty. The laws relating to marriage are as follows : 



pears which are preserved for an entire year, and they also have many 
grapes. Their land does not contain any iron, but they have copper, ob- 
tained from their mines. Gold and silver among them have but little 
value. The markets are free, and that which is sold does not have a 
fixed price. In regard to marriage. 



pears which will keep a year without spoiling ; water-rushes and peaches 
are common. Iron is not found in the ground, though copper is ; they do 
not prize gold or silver, and trade is conducted without rent, duty, or 
fixed prices. 

In matters of marriage 



pears kept unspoiled throughout the year, and they also have tomatoes. 
The ground is destitute of iron, but they have copper. Gold and silver 
are not valued. In their markets there are no taxes or fixed prices. When 
they marry, 



290 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 

837 
338 
339 
340 

341 
342 

343 
344 

345 
346 
347 
348 

849 

350 

351 
352 
853 
354 
355 
356 

357 
358 



359 
360 



Character. 



Page. 






ffi) 



z 



123 

956 

790 

1044 

641 
351 

576 
1007 

1005 

1064 

21 

804 

731 

726 

404 
638 
719 
641 
717 
1131 

984 
443 



53 
790 



Sound. 



FAH 
TSEH 

SI 
WANG 

NtJ 
KIA 

MAN 
WAI 

TSOH 

WUH 

CH'AN 

SIH 

SHA 

SAO 

KING 
NIEN 

'RH 

NU 

PUH 

YUEH 

TSIH 
K'U 



CHI 
SIANG 



Definition. 



Same as 105. ) A rule, a pat- 
>• tern to go 
" " 127. ) by. 

A son-in-law. 

To go, formerly, past, the fu- 
ture. 

Same as 143. 

A household, a family, a 
dwelling. 

Same as 16. 

Outside, beyond, foreign, to 
exclude. 

Same as 82. 

" " 84. 

Morning, dawn. 

Evening, dusk, the last day 
of a month or year. 

To sprinkle, to scatter, deep 
water. 

To sweep, to brush, to clean 
up, a broom. 



Translation. 



Same 


as 


314. 


ii 


i( 


11. 


<i 


II 


68. 




u 


143. 

100. 



Contented, delightful, 
agree to, willing. 



to 



Eating, to go, now, soon, then, 
forthwith. 

To turn animals out of a field, 
to drive on, to lash, to or- 
der people into their prop- 
er places. 

Same as 40. 

" " 144. 



it is the 
RULE 

THEN 
for the intending 
SON-IN-LAW 

TO GO 

and the 

WOMAN 

DWELLING 

's 
DOOR 

OUTSIDE 

TO MAKE 

HOUSE 
(or cabin). 

MORNING 
and 

EVENING 

he 
SPRINKLES 

and 
SWEEPS 
(the ground) 

THROUGH- 

out a 

YEAR, 

AND 

if the 

WOMAN 

is 

NOT 

PLEASED 

with him, 

THEN 

she 

SENDS AWAY 



HIM; 

bat if thev are 
MUTUALLY 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 091 



builds a house or cabin near that of the maid whom he desires to wed 
and takes care to sprinkle a certain quantity of water upon the ground 
every day during the year ; he finally marries the maid, if she wishes and 
consents ; otherwise, he goes to seek his fortune elsewhere. 



He who desires to. wed a girl, establishes his cabin before the door of 
the latter ; he sprinkles and sweeps the earth every morning and every 
night. When he has practiced this formality for a year, if the maid will 
not give her consent, he desists ; but if she is 



the man builds himself a hut before the door of the house in which the 
one lives whom he desires ; morning and evening he sprinkles and clears 
the ground. When a year has passed, if the maiden does not consent, he 
leaves her ; but if she 



(Not translated.) 



The future son-in-law goes into the family of the girl and constructs a 
house outside of her door; morning and night he waters and sweeps 
the place. If, at the end of a year, the girl feels no love for him, she 
sends him away ; but, if they ai'e smitten with love for each other. 



the customs of the country are as follows : the suitor constructs a dwell- 
ing for himself before the door of the house in which dwells the young 
woman whom he seeks. Morning and evening he sprinkles and sweeps 
the earth in this place. At the end of a year, if the young woman is not 
pleased, she sends him away ; and, in the contrary case. 



it is the law that the (intending) son-in-law must erect a hut before the 
door of the girl's house, and must sprinkle and sweep the place morn- 
ing and evening for a whole year. If she then docs not like him, she 
bids him depart ; but if she is 



it is the custom for the son-in-law to go and erect a house (or cabin) out- 
side of the door of the dwelling, of the young woman (whom he desires to 
marry). Morning and evening he sprinkles and sweeps (the ground) for 
a year, and, if the young woman is not pleased with him, she then sends 
him away ; but if they are mutually 



292 



AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


361 


^ 


1131 


YUEH 


Same as 356, 


PLEASED, 


362 


Tj 


612 


NAI 


But, it may be, doubtless, 


THEN 








moreover, if, then, there- 


they 


363 


m 


71 


CH'ING 


upon. 
To finish, to complete, to ac- 


COMPLETE 








complish. 


the 


364 


268 


HWUN 


Same as 336. 


MARRIAGE. 

The 


365 


m 


268 


HWUN 


" " 336. 


MARRIAGE 


366 




520 


LI 


An act, particularly an act of 


CEREMONIES 








worship, ceremony, rites. 


for tho 










manners. 




36Y 


iK 


889 


TA 


Same as 28. 1 t., „ /, « 
In gen- 


MOST 


368 


ffi 


878 


TI 


To oppose, to sus- \ ^^^ 
tarn, to reach, , 
to obtain. J P^"' 


PART 

are 


369 




1125 


Y& 


By, with, to, as, as if. 


AS 
in the 


370 


* 


105 


CHUNG 


Same as 38. 


MIDDLE 


SYl 


Pi 


491 


KWOH 


" " 5. 


KINGDOM 

the 
SAME. 


372 


R 


933 


T'UNG 


Together, all, identical, same. 










the same as. 


For a 


373 


a, 


991 


TS'LV 


To love, to approach, near. 


FATHER, 








intimate, a relative, a wife. 


MOTHER, 










kindred. The six ts'in 


WIFE, OR 










are parents, brothers, wife, 


SON, 




•=fc: 






and sons. 


they 


374 


H 


725 


SANG 


To mourn, to lament for one's 
parents. 


MOURN 


375 


-b 


987 


TS'in 


Same as 213. 


SEVEN 


376 





293 


JEH 


A day, the sun, daily. 


DAYS, 


377 


A" 


717 


PUH 


Same as 100. 


NOT 


378 


-k 


766 


SHIH 


" " 63. 


EATING. 

For a 


379 


m. 


1007 


TSU 


A grandfather, an an- " 




GRAND- 








cestor, the first, the 














origin, to begin. 


A 

- grand- 




380 


^ 


147 


FU 


A rule, a father, an 


father. 


FATHER 








ancestor, a senior. 














paternal. 




or grand- 


381 




605 


MU 


A mother, a dam, the source 


MOTHER 








of. 


they 


382 


% 


725 


SANG 


Same as 374. 


MOURN 


883 


W. 


1060 


WU 


A perfect number, five, the 
whole, all. 


FIVE 


384 





293 


JEH 


Same as 376. 




DAYS 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 293 



The marriage ceremonies, for the most part, are similar to those which 
are practiced in China. At the death of relatives, they fast a greater or 
less number of days, according to the degree of relationship. 



pleased with him, he marries her. The ceremonies of marriage are 
nearly the same as in China. At the death of father or mother, they fast 
seven days. At that of a grandfather or grandmother, they refrain from 
eating for five days, 



consents, the marriage is completed. The marriage customs, on the 
whole, resemble those of the " Middle Kingdom." When the parents die, 
it is the custom to fast for seven days ; on the death of a grandfather, 
on either the father's or mother's side, five days ; 



The rules for the observance of the marriage ceremony are in general 
the same as those of the Middle Kingdom (China). 



they are married. The ceremonies of marriage are in general the same as 
those in China. If a father or mother dies, one fasts for seven days ; if 
it is a grandfather or grandmother, for five days ; 



the marriage is immediately celebrated with ceremonies which have much 
resemblance to those of China. At the death of father or mother, it is 
the custom to fast for seven days. The fast is for five days at the death 
of a grandfather or grandmother, 



pleased with him, they are married. The bridal ceremonies are for the 
most part like those of China. A fast of seven days is observed for par- 
ents at their death ; five for grand-parents ; 



pleased, then the marriage is completed, the marriage ceremonies being 
for the most part like those of the "Middle Kingdom " (China). 

For a father, mother, wife, or son, they mourn for seven days without 
eating. For a grandfather or grandmother they mourn for five days 



294 



AN IXGLORTOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 

385 
386 

387 
388 

389 
390 

391 

392 

393 

394 
395 

396 
397 
398 
399 
400 

401 

402 
403 
404 

405 

406 
407 

408 



Character. 



Page. 



Ms 

m 

M 





ex 

m 



9 






71V 
766 
213 

879 

707 
779 

432 
1031 

586 

723 

293 
717 
766 
750 
1002 
737 

793 



804 
648 



717 
59 

1017 



Sound. 



PUH 

SHIH 

IIIUNG 

TI 

POH 

snuH 

KU 
TSZ' 

MEI 

SAN 

JEH 

PUH 
SHIH 
SHEH 

TSO 
SHAN 

SIANG 

CHAO 
SIH 
PAI 

TIEN 

PUH 
CHI 

TSUI 



Detinition. 



Same as 100. 
" " 63. 
An elder brother, a senior. 

A younger brother, junior, 
cousins. 

A father's elder brother. 
A father's younger brother. 

A polite term for females. 

An elder sister, a school-mis- 
tress. 

A younger sister, a sister, a 
girl. 

Same as 208. 

" " 376. 

" " 100. 

" " 63. 

To institute, establish, set up. 

Same as 174. 

A god, a spirit, divine, super- 
natural. 

Like, a figure, image, like- 
ness, a statue, an idol, to 
resemble. 

The dawn, morning, early. 

Same as 348. 

To honour, reverence, kneel 
to, salute. 

To enshrine as a god, to offer 
libations. 

Same as 100. 

To regulate, a rule, practice, 
mourning usages. 

A strip of sackcloth ancient- 
ly worn on the breast as a 
badge of mourning. 



Translation. 



NOT 

EATING ; 
for an 
ELDER 
BROTHER, 
YOUNGER 
BROTHER, 

FATHER'S ELD- 
ER BROTHER, 
FATHER'S 
YOUNGER 
BROTHER, 
or his SISTER, 
or for an 
ELDER 
SISTER 
or 
YOUNGER 
SISTER, 

THREE 

DAYS, 

NOT 

EATING. 

They 

ESTABLISH 

and 

SET UP 

the 
SPIRIT 



IMAGE, 

and 

MORNING 

and 
EVENING 

they 
REVERENCE 

it, and 

OFFER LIBA- 
TIONS 
to it. Thev do 
NOT," 
in their 
MOURNING 
USAGES, 
wear 
MOURNING- 
GARMENTS 
or 



THE DESCRIPTION OF FU-SANG. 295 



and during their prayers they expose the image of the deceased person. 
They wear no mourning 



and only for three days at the death of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, 
and other relatives. The images of spirits are placed upon a species of 
pedestal, and prayers are addressed to them morning and evening. 



for the death of an elder or younger brother or sister, or an uncle or aunt, 
three days. They sit then, from morning until evening, before the image 
of the spirit, absorbed in prayer ; yet they have no mourning 



(Xot translated.) 



if it is an uncle, or an aunt, or a sister, for three days. The image of 
the deceased person is placed upon a pedestal. It is saluted morning and 
night, and offerings made to it. There is no law in regard to mourning 



and for three days at the death of brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts, 
without distinction between the elder and younger, or between the rela- 
tives on the father's side and those on the mother's side. The image of a 
spirit is set up, before which prostrations are made morning and night, 
and to which oblations are made. Moreover, mourning 



and three days for brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts. Images to repre- 
sent their spirits are set up, before which they worship and pour out hba- 
tions morning and evening ; but they wear no mourning or 



without eating; for an elder brother, younger brother, father's elder 
brother, or father's younger brother, or for the corresponding female rela- 
tives, or for an elder sister or younger sister, three days without eating. 
They set up an image of the spirit (of the deceased person) and reverence 
it, and offer libations to it morning and evening. In their mourning 
usages they do not wear mourning garments or 



296 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 



Character. 



Pase. 



409 



410 



411 
412 

413 
414 
415 
416 
417 
418 

419 

420 

421 

422 
423 
424 
425 

426 
42V 

428 
429 
430 

431 

432 



_1L 






ii 



EST 

m 



890 

838 

1043 
538 

723 
634 
71/ 
991 
491 
764 

342 
822 

414 

1059 
153 
123 
831 

839 
599 

721 
634 
340 

695 

491 



TIEH 

SZ' 

WANG 
LIH 

SAN 

NIEN 

• PUH 

TS'IN 

KWOH 

SHI 

K'l 

sun 

KIU 
WU 

Fun 

FAH 
SUNG 

TA 
MING 

'EH 

NIEN 

KI 

PIN 

KWOH 



DEnNITlON. 



Badges of coarse white hemp- 
en cloth worn by mourners 
at funerals. 

To succeed to, lawfully; the 
expectant heir, children, 
heirs ; to employ ; here- 
after ; the following. 

Same as 217. 

To stand erect, established, to 
set up, to succeed to or seat 
one's self on the throne. 

Same as 208. 

" " 11. 

" " 100. 

" " 373. 

" " 5. 

An affair, a matter, business, 
duties. 

Same as 12. 

Inelegant, uneducated, com- 
mon, vulgar. 

Old, venerable, formerly, an- 
ciently. 

Same as 85. 

Buddha. 

Same as 105. 

To dwell ; a feudal state ; the 
Sung dynasty. 

Same as 28. 

Bright, clear, the dawn, splen- 
dour. 

Same as 32. 

" " 11. 

A coarse carpet or felt rug, 
made of camel's hair. 

A stranger, a visitor, to en- 
tertain. 

Same as 5. 



Translation. 



MOURNING- 
BADGES. 

An 

INHERITING 



KING 

SEATED ON 
THE THRONE 

for 
THREE 

YEARS 

WITHOUT 

APPROACHING 

the 
COUNTRY 

AFFAIRS. 

THEY 

were 

IGNORANT 

FORMERLY, 

and 

DESTITUTE 

OF 

BUDDHA 

RULES ; 

but in the 

SUNG 

dynasty, 

in the period called 

" GREAT 

BRIGHTNESS," 

in the 

SECOND 

YEAR, 

KI- 

PIN 

COUNTRY 



THE DESCEIPTION OF FU-SANG. 297 



garments, and the prince who succeeds to his father takes no care regard- 
ing the government for three years after his elevation. In former times 
the people had no knowledge of the religion of Fo, but, in the year 458 
A. D., in the Sum dynasty, from Samarcand 



The king does not occupy himself with the affairs of government dur- 
ing the three years which follow his accession to the throne. Formerly 
the religion of Buddha did not exist in this country, but in the fourth of 
the years Ta-ming, of the reign of Biao-zvou-ti of the dynasty of Soung 
(458 A. D.), from the country of Ki-pin (Cophene), 



garments. The king who succeeds his deceased father docs not occupy 
himself with the affairs of the kingdom for the next three years. Of old, 
the method of living of these people was not according to the laws of 
Buddha. It happened, however, that in the second year of the years 
bearing the designation "Great Light," of the Song dynasty (458 a. d.), 
from the kingdom of Kipin, 



In the second year of the period called " ta-ming " (or great light), the 
year 458 of our era, under the reign of the emperor Hiao Wu-ti of the 
Sung dynasty, from the country of Ki-pin, 



garments. The heir to the throne remains three years without occupying 
himself with the affairs of the kingdom. Formerly they did not know 
the doctrine of Buddha. In the second year of the period Ta-ming, of 
the dynasty of the Song (458), from the kingdom of Ki-pin (i. e., Cophene, 
now the country of Caboul), 



garments are not worn. During the first three years of his accession, the 
king does not occupy himself with affairs of state. Formerly the religion 
of Fo was unknown in Fusang. It was only in the Song dynasty, in the 
second of the years ta-ming (458), that from the kingdom of Ki-pin 



fillets. The successor of the king does not attend personally to govern- 
ment affairs for the first three years. In olden times they knew nothing 
of the Buddhist religion, but during the reign Ta-ming, of the Emperor 
Hiao Wu-ti of the Sung dynasty (a, d. 458), from Ki-pin 



mourning-badges. A king who inherits the throne does not occupy him- 
self with the affairs of the government for the first three years after his ac- 
cession. Formerly they were ignorant, and knew nothing of the Buddhist 
religion ; but during the reign of the Sung dynasty, in the second year of 
the period called Ta-ming (or " Great Brightness," i. e., in the year 458 
A. D.), from the country of Ki-pin (i. e., Cophene, now Cabul), 



298 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


433 


W 
B 


2V 


434 


^ 


1113 


435 


}:\1 


674 


436 


W^ 


416 


4M 


"ft. 


1060 


438 


A 


286 


439 


» 


1112 


440 


n 


207 


441 




342 


442 


i 


491 


443 


M 


549 


444 


m. 


932 


445 


# 


153 


446 


m 


123 


44Y 


S 


404 


448 


n 


793 


449 


it 


372 


450 


^ 


546 


451 


ffi 


98 


452 


* 


351 


453 


a 


155 


454 


is- 


822 


455 


M, 


828 


456 


iSE 


307 



Sound. 



CH'ANG 

YIU 
PI 

K'lU 

WU 
JAN 
YIU 

IIIXG 

K'l 

KWOII 

LIU 

T'UNG 

run 

FAH 
KIXG 
SIAXG 
KIAO 

LING 

Cn'UII 

KIA 
FUNG 

SUH 
SUI 
KAI 



Definition. 



To taste, to try, to essay, to prove. 
When preceding another verb, 
it denotes past time, usually, 
formerly, ever. 

Same as 14. 

To compare, to corre- ' 
spond, to equal, to bring 
into harmony, to select, A 
each, every. I men- 

A natural hillock, a high ( dicant 
place, a hill with a hoi- priest, 
lowed or level top for 
worshipers, a tumulus. 

Same as 383. 

" " 62. 

To float, drift, swim, travel, rove 
about, to tiike pleasure in, satis- 
fled, pleased. 

Same as 245. 
" " 12. 



The flowing of w.iter, to pass, to 
circulate, to diffuse, to make 
known, to shed, fluid, to select, 
to beg, a class, roving, vagrant. 

To permeate, go through, see 
clearly, to bring about, to suc- 
ceed, current, through, general, 
complete. 

Same as 423. 

" " 105. 
" " 314. 



II 



" 401. 



To instruct, to teach, command, 
precept, doctrine, a religious 
sect, a party, a class. 

A law, a rule, an order, to 
command, an oflScer. 

To become a priest. 
(Hepburn, p. 424.) 
Forsaking home, 
surname, and the 
world to enter a 
Buddhist monas- 
tery. 

The wind, a breeze, speech, man- 
ner, deportment, style, fashion, 
reformation, instruction, temper, 
habit. 
Same as 420. 

To accord with, then, thereon, 
finally. 

Same as 256, 



Same as 165. 



" 845. 



Translation. 



had 
FORMERLY 



HAD 
PI- 

K'lU, 

(mendicant priests), 

FIVE 

MEN, 

who 

VOYAGING 

WENT 

to 
THAT 

COUNTRY, 
and 

MADE 
KNOWN 

THROUGH 

it 

BUDDHA 

RULES, 

and his 

RELIGIOUS 

BOOKS, and 

IMAGES, 

.and 

TAUGHT 

the 

COMMAND 
to 

FORSAKE 

the 

FA^IILY, 

and its 
MANNERS' 



RUDENESS 

FINALLY 

was 
REFORMED. 



THE DESCEIPTIO^ OF FU-SANG. 299 



five priests went preaching their doctrine in this country, and then the 
manners of the people were changed. 



&ye pi-khieou, or priests, came to Fu-sang, and there spread abroad the 
law of Buddha. They carried with them their books and sacred images, 
and the ritual, and established monastic customs, and so changed the 
manners of the inhabitants. 



five begging monks came to this land, and there spread abroad the re- 
ligion of Buddha, with his sacred writings and images. They instructed 
the people regarding the rules of monastic life, and so changed the cus- 
toms of the people. 



five bhikshu (mendicant priests) in their travels reached Fou-so, and com- 
menced to propagate Buddhism there. 



five hhikchous (religious mendicants) traveled into this country, and there 
spread abroad the law, the books, and the images of Buddha. Their doc- 
trine induced men to leave their families (in order to embrace a religious 
life). The manners of the inhabitants were then changed (i. e., the peo- 
ple immediately adopted the usages and the principles of Buddhism). 



five Buddhist priests repaired by sea to this country. They there dis- 
tributed the books of the law and the holy images ; they taught the pre- 
cepts of monastic life, and changed the manners of the inhabitants. 



five beggar priests went there. They traveled over the kingdom, every- 
where making known the laws, canons, and images of that faith. Priests 
of regular ordination were set apart among the natives, and the customs 
of the country became reformed. 



formerly, five men who were pi-k'iu (i. e., bhikshus, mendicant Bud- 
dhist monks) went by a voyage to that country, and made Buddha's rules 
and his religious books and images known among them, taught the com- 
mand to forsake the family (for the purpose of entering a monastery), and 
finally reformed the rudeness of its customs. 



300 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Hwui Shan also gave a description of a country called " the 
Kingdom of Women," situated about one thousand U east of 
Fu-sang. This story has always been rejected as a manifest 
absurdity, and its presumed falsity has been one of the most 
powerful arguments for casting discredit upon his whole account. 
For this reason, those who have accepted his statements regard- 
ing the country of Fu-sang have said as little as possible about 
his tale in regard to " the Kingdom of Women," and have dis- 
missed it with the statement that it was merely a description, 
given by him from hearsay, of a country that he had not visited, 
and that its absurdities should not be permitted to raise doubts 
as to the truth of his report regarding the country of Fu-sang, 
in which he had resided. 

His description, which will be found, when rightly translated 
and understood, to be substantially true, and to furnish strong 
proof of the reliability of his statements, will be given in the 
following chapter ; and as the only clew to the location of Fu- 
sang is that it lies easterly from both China and the Great Han 
Country, and as all that is known as to the situation of this last- 
named country is that it lies northeasterly from Wen Shtin, the 
land of "Marked Bodies," the Chinese account of these two 
countries will also be given. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN", THE LAND OF " MARKED BODIES," AND 
THE GREAT HAN COUNTRY. 

The accounts of all these countries derived from the same source — The Chinese 
text — The location of the Kingdom of Women — Its inhabitants — Their long 
locks — Their migrations — Birth of their young — Nursing the young — The age 
at which they walk — Their timidity — Their devotion to their mates — The 
salt-plant — Its peculiarities — A shipwreck — The women — A tribe whose lan- 
guage could not be understood — Men with puppies' heads — Their food, 
clothing, and dwellings — The land of " Marked Bodies " — Its location — 
Tattooing with three lines — The character of the people — Lack of fortifi- 
cations — The king's residence — Water-silver — No money used — The Country 
of Great Han — Its location — Lack of weapons — Its people. 

The following account of the Kingdom of Women is ex- 
pressly stated to have been given by Hwui Shan ; but it does not 
appear to have been noticed that the reports in regard to the 
Great Han Country, and the land of "Marked Bodies," must 
also, in all probability, have been derived from the same source. 

These countries were made known to the Chinese during the 
reign of the Liang dynasty. Now, it is known that Hwui Shan 
reached China just before the establishment of this dynasty, but 
that his account was not given to the emperor, and did not 
become generally known, until some time during its first years. 
Hence there can have been no earlier report, regarding Great 
Han, than that which he could have given ; • and as in his account 
of Fu-sang he refers to Great Han, and in the description of 
this country the land of " Marked Bodies " is mentioned, it is 
almost impossible that he should not have been questioned as to 
these strange countries also. The accounts are short — such as 
would be incidentally given in a single report, in which the main 
interest centered upon another land ; and there is nothing to 
show that the Chinese ever heard anything more about them. 



302 



AN INGLOEIOPS COLUMBUS. 



Character. 



414: 

475 

476 
477 

478 

479 
480 



* 



No. 

457 

458 

459 
460 
461 
462 
463 
464 
465 
466 
467 
468 

469 

470 ^ 

471 X 

472 ^ 

473 



Page. 






^ 



MU 

m 



IE 



a 



641 
491 



641 
491 
265 
736 
1142 
941 
144 
724 
930 
980 

518 

342 

286 

1146 

582 

936 
75 

727 
738 

377 

706 
735 



Bound. 



Ntr 

KWOH 



NtJ 
KWOH 
HWUI 
SHlN 
YUN 
TSAI 

FU 
SANG 
TUNG 
TS'IEN 

LI 

K'l 

JlN 

YUNG 

MAO 

TWAN 
CHING 

sun 
shIn 

KIEH 

POH 
SHAN 



Definition. 



Same as 143. 

(I U K 



Same as 143. 
" " 6. 
" " 17. 
" " 18. 
" " 24. 
" " 27. 

U (I 1 

U (1 i) 

" " 31. 

A thousand, many, an indefi- 
nite number. 

Same as 35. 
" " 12. 



To receive, the air, ] 
HiaiiDer, eondiiet, 
the face, looks, or 
attitude. 

The outward mien, 
gait, style, mao- 
ner, form, appear- 
ance, the face, 
like, similar to. 

Sproutinfj, the head, ' 
the origin, straig-ht, 
direct, correct, up- 
right, modest, 
grave, decent. 

Correct, proper, 
straight, rig hit, 
erect, exact, really, 
the tirst. 



The aspect 
of one's man- 
ner ' (Med- 
hurst, p. 757). 
The appear- 
ance, air, de- 
meanour. 



Correct, in- 
tegrity, up- 
right,' either 
physically 
or morally. 



Same as 



253. -j 



(Modhurst. SSfi.) 
The countenance, 
colour, beauty. 



Social delights, very, extreme^ 

ly. 



Clear, limpid, 
tidy. 

Same as 273. 

" " 161. 



pure, neat. 



Translation. 



WOMAN 
COUNTRY. 



WOMAN 

COUNTRY, 

HWUI 

SHAN 

SAYS, 

IS SITUATED 

from 
FU- 

SANG 

EAST 

one 

THOUSAND 

LI. 

ITS 
PEOPLE 

MANNER 

of 

APPEARANCE 



STRAIGHT 

ERECT. 
Their 

COLOUR 

is a 

VERY 

PURE 



WHITE. 

Their 

BODIES 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN. 303 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN. 

The inhabitants of this kingdom are white, 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEX. 
The bonze Hoei-chin has spoken in the following terms of a kingdom 
of women situated a thousand li from Fu-sang toward the east. The 
women of this kingdom have very regular features and very white faces ; 
but 



NU KWOH, OR KINGDOM OF WOMEN. 

Concerning the Kingdom of Women, the shaman Hwui-shin relates : It 
is a thousand li to the east of Fu-sang. The bearing and manners of the 
people are very sedate and formal ; their color is exceedingly clear and 
white ; their bodies 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN. 

Hwui ShSn says that the Country of Women is situated a thousand li 
east of Fv^ang. Its people's manner of appearance is straight erect 
(or, is very correct), and their colour is (or their countenances are) a very 
pure white. 

Their bodies 



304 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


481 


H2 


884 


T'l 


The body, the whole person, the 


THE WHOLE 








substauce, a solid, the essentiala, 


BODY 




^ 






influential, to embody. 


482 


1113 


YIU 


Same as 14. 


HAS 


483 


^ 


580 


MAO 


The covering of animals or 
birds, as hair, fur, feathers, 
or down. 


HAIR. 

The 


484 


« 


121 


FAH 


The hair of the head, numer- 


HAIR OF THE 








ous, grass, vegetation. 


HEAD is 


485 


M 


27 


CH'ANG 


Same as 281. 


LONG, 

the 
END 


486 


^ 


1051 


W]6l 


To sustain, bear, allege, send off. 




3A 






confide to, a wrong, grievance, 
the end-, the last, really. 


reaching to the 


487 


m 


879 


TI 


Same as 36. 


GROUND. 


488 


^ 


60 


CHI 


" " 20. 


AT 

the 


489 




721 


'RH 


" " 32. 


SECOND 


490 


— 


723 


SAN 


" " 208. 


THIRD 


491 


n 


1129 


YUEH 


The moon, a lunar month, 
monthly. 


MONTH, 


492 


WL 


407 


KING 


Originally formed of words above a 


BICKERING, 








man, repeated, to indicate the 












bickering of the people ; strong, 












violent, bickering, testy, to be 


they 










quarrelsome, great, abundant. 




493 


A 


299 


JUH 


To enter, to go into, to pro- 
gress, according to, an en- 


ENTER 

the 










trance. 


494 


* 


781 


SHUI 


Water, a fluid, clear, a stream, a 


WATER. 








trip from one place to another, 












an inundation, trivial, common. 


They 










gentle, low land, to wet, to soak. 


495 


11] 


956 


TSEH 


Same as 127. 


THEN 


496 


*l 


287 


JlN 


Pregnant ( u s e d 1 


BECOME 








only of women). P™^^ 


PREGNANT 


497 


m 


736 


shIn 


Pregnant, quick ^^^^^'^^ 
with child. J 


WITH YOUNG 
In 


498 


1- 


562 


LUH 


Six. 


SIX 
or 


499 


-t: 


987 


TS'IH 


Same as 213. 


SEVEN 


500 


n 


1129 


YUEH 


" " 491. 


MONTHS 

they 


501 


j£ 


14 


CH'AN 


To produce, to breed, to bear, 
a birth, the natives, an es- 


BEAR 

their 










tate, an occupation. 


502 


^ 


1030 


TSZ' 


Same as 206. 


YOUNG. 

The 
FEMALE 


503 


^ 


641 


nCt 


" " 143. i 








>- Females. 




504 


A 


286 


JlN 


" " 62. ) 


PEOPLE 

's 



THE KINGDOM OF VOiTEN". 305 



zn 

o 
I— I 

o 



They have hairy bodies and long locks that fall down to the ground. At 
the second or third month the women come to bathe in a river, and they 
become pregnant. They bear their young at the sixth or seventh month. 



have hairy bodies and long locks which fall down to the ground. At the 
second or third month they enter the water, and they then become preg- 
nant. They bear their young at the sixth or seventh month. 
These women 



are hairy, and the hair of the head trails on the ground. In the spring 
they emulously rush into the water and become pregnant ; the children 
are bom in the autumn. These female-men 



C5 

l-H 



are hairy, and they have long locks, the ends of which reach to the 
groimd. 

At the second or third month, bickering, they enter the water (come 
down to the low lands or to the streams ? or, perhaps, " enter upon a mi- 
gration," the character SHri meaning not only " water," but also " a trip 
from one place to another "). They then become pregnant. They bear 
their young at the sixth or seventh month (probably of gestation ; but 
possibly of the year). The female-people 



20 



306 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Depinition. 


Translation. 


505 


m 


214 


HIUNG 


The thorax, the breast, the 
bosom, the feehngs, the 
heart, clamour. 


CHESTS 


506 


flf 


981 


TS'IEN 


To advance, progress, in front 
of, before, in advance, for- 
merly, when, a light black 
colour. 


IN FRONT 


507 
508 
509 

510 




1059 
298 
191 

175 


WU 
JU 

niAo 

HEU 


Same as 85. 

" " 308. 

The nape, the part which 
rests on the pillow; a 
sort or class, great, 
funds. 

After, in time ; too late ; 
behind, in place; then, 
next, an heir, to remain, 
the second. 


A 

young 
man. 


ARE DESTI- 
TUTE OF 
BREASTS, 
but the 
NAPE OF THE 

NECK 
(or back of the head) 

BEHIND 


511 


'¥. 


742 


SHANG 


Same as 58. 


BEARS 


512 


% 


580 


MAO 


" " 483. 


HAIR- 


513 


u 


317 


KlN 


Root, origin, beginning, a base ; a 
classifier of things long and stiff, 
and eyen of ropes ; an organ. 


ROOTS; 
and the 


514 


a 


706 


POH 


Same as 273. 


WHITE 


515 


^ 


580 


MAO 


" " 483. 


HAIR 


516 


f 


105 


CHUNG 


" " 38. 


MIDST 


517 


m 


1113 


YIU 


" " 14. 


HAS 


518 

519 
520 


ft 


67 

298 
1030 


CHIH 

JU 
TSZ' 


Juice, gravy, Uquor, 

pleasing to the taste iirj,. 

Same as 308. J 

" " 206. 


JUICE 

(or is pleasing to the 
taste). They 

NURSE 

their 

YOUNG 

for 


521 


6 


707 


POH 


A hundred, many, all. 


ONE HUNDRED 


522 

523 





293 
616 


JEH 
NANG 


Same as 376. 

The moose ; power, ability, 
skill, capable, skillful, may, 
can. 


DAYS, 

and they then 

CAN 


524 
525 


n 


207 
723 


HING 

SAN 


Same as 245. 
" " 208. 


WALK. 

When 
THREE 


526 


m 


836 


SZ' 


Four, all, around, everywhere. 


or 

FOUR 


527 


¥ 


634 


NIEN 


Same as 11. 


YEARS 


528 


M 


956 


TSEH 


" " 127. 




old 
THEN 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEK 307 



Instead of breasts they have white locks at the back of the head, from 
which there issues a liquor that serves to nourish their children. It is 
said that one hundred days after their birth the children are able to run 
about, and when three or four years of age appear 



have no breasts upon their chests, but only hair of a white colour at the 
back of the neck, which contains milk. One hundred days after their 
birth the children commence to walk, and at the age of three or four 
years they have attained 



have no paps on their bosoms, but hair-roots grow on the back of their 
necks ; a juice is found in the white ones. The children are suckled a 
hundred days, when they can walk ; by the fourth year they are 



are destitute of breasts in front of their chests, but behind, at the nape of 
the neck (or back of the head), they have hair-roots (short hair, or a 
bunch of hair, or a hairy organ), and in the midst of the white hair it is 
pleasing to the taste (or there is juice). They nurse their young for 
one hundred days, and they can then walk. When three or four years 
old they become 



308 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. ( 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Transl.ition. 


529 


m 


77 


CH'ING 


Same as 3G8. f Adult (Medhurst, 
p. 60). To become 
a man. 


FULLY 


530 


A 


286 


JAN 


" " 62. i (Hepburn, p. 846.) 
A grown-up per- 
son, full-grown. 


GROWN, 


531 


^ 


279 


I 


A final particle, denoting that the 
sense has been fully expressed, 
or that the intention is very 
strong. 


TRULY. 


532 


^ 


385 


KIEN 


To see, to know, to observe, an 
opinion, to appear. 

(Hepburn, p. 115.) 


SEEING 
a 


533 


A 


286 


jAn 


„„ A man, a person. 
Same as 62. j ^^^^ ^r lemale, 


HUMAN BEING, 








people, mankind. 


they are 


534 


^ 


403 


KING 


A shy horse, to terrify, afraid, 
alarmed. 


AFRAID, 

and 


535 


;f* 


675 


PI 


To flee from, to escape, avoid, to 


FLEE 


JliiC 






retire, to hide away. 




536 


li 


689 


P'lEN 


At or bv the side, deflected, exces- 
sive, aside, partial. Before verbs, 
must, will. 


TO ONE SIDE. 

They 


537 


¥ 


1054 


WEI 


To dread, venerate, respect, awe. 


VENERATE 


p< 






devotion for, dread, timidity. 




538 


5t 


25 


CHANG 


A line of ton feet, to 1 
measure, an elder. ^^ 

To help, assist, a hus- V j^^gijand. 
band, a man, a 
scholar. J 


their 


539 


* 


142 


FU 


HUSBANDS 

(or mates). They 


540 


«? 


766 


sniH 


Same as 63. 


EAT 

the 


541 


m 


198 


HIEN 


Saltish, preserved, salted, 
bitter. 


SALT- 


542 


¥ 


956 


TS'AO 


Plants with herbaceous stems. 


PLANT ; 








herbs, vegetation, plants in 


its 










general. 




543 


^ 


1081 


YEH 


Same as 54. 


LEAVES 


544 


^ 


837 


SZ' 


" " 55. 


RESEMBLE 

those of the 


545 


:^i 


796 


SIE 


Deflected, inclined, depraved, 
corrupting. 


SIE- 


646 




170 


EAO 


Tall herbs ; the Artemisia pe- 


HAO 








dicularis ; Vitex, or Amar- 


(a species of ab- 










anthus; Tansy. 


sinthe). 


547 


rfn 


719 


'RH 


Same as 68. 


BUT 

its 


648 


S 


348 


K'l 


Fume, vapour, steam, breath, 


ODOUR 








air, spirit, temper, to smell. 


is more 


549 


# 


188 


HIANG 


Fragrant, odoriferous, sweet. 


FRAGRANT 

and its 


550 


* 


1053 


WEI 


Taste, flavour, smell, relish. 


TASTE 

is 


651 


K 


198 


CHANG 


Same as 541. 


SALTISH. 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEK 309 



appear fully grown. The women take flight at sight of a stranger, and 
they are very respectful toward their husbands. These people feed upon 
a plant which has the taste and odour of salt, and which for this reason 
bears the name of the " salt-plant." The leaves are similar to those of 
the plant which the Chinese call sie-hao, which is a species of absinthe. 



their full growth. The women take to flight rapidly at sight of a stranger. 
They have much respect for their husbands. A fragrant herb, of which 
the leaves resemble those of the plant sie-hao (a species of absinthe), and 
of which the taste is saltish, is eaten in this coimtry. 



fully grown. Whenever they see a man, they flee and hide from him in 
terror, for they are afraid of having husbands. They eat pickled greens, 
whose leaves are like wild celery ; the odor is agreeable and the taste 
saltish 



fully grown. This is true ! When they see a human being, they are 
afraid, and flee to one side. They venerate (or are devoted to) their hus- 
bands (or mates). 

They eat the " salt-plant." Its leaves resemble (those of the plant called 
by the Chinese) the sie-hao (a species of absinthe or wormwood), but 
its odour is more fragrant and its taste is saltish. 



310 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 




m 








In the reign of the 


552 


525 


LIANG 


A bridge, a beam, self-reli- 


LIANG 








ant, the principal, the Li- 


dynasty, under the 


553 


^ 


.1061 


WU 


ang dynasty. 
Military, martial, warlike. 


emperor 

wu- 


554 


•t 


880 


TI 


To judge, a god, a sovereign, 


TI 








Heaven, supreme. 


in the years des- 












ignated by the name 


555 


55 


897 


T'lEN 


Heaven, the sky, a day, sea- 


TIEN 








son, celestial, God. 




556 


387 


KIEN 


To examine carefully, an of- 


KIEN 








fice, to look down upon as 


(Celestial Protec- 










a god, to oversee. 


tion), in the 


551 


T . 


562 


LUH 


Same as 498. 


Six- 


558 


^ 


634 


NIEN 


" " 11. 


th 
YEAR, 


559 


^ 


1113 


YIU 


" " 14. 


THERE WERE 


560 


m 


990 


TSIN 


To increase, to grow, to at- 


TSIN- 








tach, to adopt. 




561 


A 


620 


NGAN 


Peace, rest, tranquillity, 


NGAN 








peaceful, calm, quiet. 


(the name of a place) 


562 


286 


jIn 


Same as 62. 


MEN 


563 


M 


917 


TU 


To ford, to cross a stream or 
sea, to go through, to pass, 
a ferry-boat. 


CROSSING 

the 


564 


160 


HAI 


The sea, an arm of the ocean, 


SEA. 










a large river, marine, vast, 












great, oceanic. 




665 


M 


1047 


WEI 


Same as 50. 


BECAUSE OF 

the 

WIND 


566 


m 


155 


FUNG 


" " 453. 


567 


m 


817 


su 


To fell timber, a place, if, as 
to, who, what, a cause, a 
final expletive. 


CAUSING 
them to be 


568 


11 


683 


P'lAO 


A whirlwind, swayed, whirled. 


BLOWNABOUT, 








blown about or rocked by 


they 










the wind. 


569 


m. 


60 


CHI 


Same as 20. 


REACHED 


570 


■£« 


1095 


YIH 


" " 194. 


A CERTAIN 

(or the same) 


571 


% 


866 


TAO 


An island out at sea ; a hill 
on which birds can alight 
in crossing seas. 


ISLAND 

(or possibly " sea- 
coast"). They 


572 


« 


862 


TlXG 


To ascend, to advance, to at- 


WENT 








tain, as soon as, specially. 












at the time. 




573 


^ 


622 


NGAN 


A shore, bank, or beach ; the edge 


ASHORE 








or bank of a stream, end of a 












journey. 


where there 


674 


^ 


1113 


YIU 


Same as 14. 


WERE 


575 


A 


286 


JlN 


" " 62. 


PEOPLE 

's 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN. 311 



In the year 50Y a. d., in the reign of the Learn dynasty, a Chinese ves- 
sel which was sailing the ocean was driven by a tempest to an unknown 
island 



During the reign of the emperor Ou-ti, of the Leang dynasty, in the 
sixth of the years called iien-kien (50*7), some Chinese sailors of Tsin-ngan 
(now Fou-tcheou-fou [Fo-kien]), who were navigating the sea, were carried 
far out of their course by furious winds. They landed upon an island 



In the year a. d. 608, in the reign of Wu-ti, of the Liang dynasty, a 
man from Tsin-ngan was crossing the sea, when he was caught in a storm 
and driven to a certain island. On going ashore, he found it to be in- 
habited. 



In the reign of the Liang dynasty, under the emperor Wu-ti, in the 
sixth year of the period designated by the name Tien-kien, or " Celestial 
Protection " (i. e., in 507 a. d.), some men of Tsin-ngan, who were cross- 
ing the sea, were driven by the winds to a certain island (or the same 
sea-coast). They went ashore and found the inhabitants' 



812 



AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


576 


M 


437 


KU 


To dwell, dwellings, residence, 


DWELLINGS. 




± 






the settled parts. 


The 


611 


641 


Nil 


Same as 143. 


WOMEN 


578 


n 


956 


TSEH 


" " 127. 


THEN 


579 


^tj 


297 


JtJ 


" " 59. 


RESEMBLED 

the 


580 


tt» 


105 


CHUNG 


" " 38. 


MIDDLE 


581 


|i| 


491 


KWOH 


" " 5. 


KINGDOM 


582 


A 


286 


JlN 


" " 62. 


PEOPLE, 


583 


r^ 


719 


'RH 


" " 68. 


BUT 

their 


584 




1083 


YEN 


A word, sentence, ' 
remark, speech, 
talk, reports. 


Conver- 


LANGUAGE 

's 


585 


1126 


Ytjr 


To talk with, to con- 


sation, 


WORDS 










verse, to tell, 


discus- 












words, conversa- 


sion. 












tion, discourse. 














language. 






586 


A- 


717 


PUH 


Same as 100. 


NOT 


587 


PJ 


425 


K'O 


To be willing, to permit, able 
to do, can, may. 


COULD 

be 


588 


m 


193 


HIAO 


Light, clear, the dawn, intel- 
ligent, easy to perceive, to 
make to understand, to 
comprehend. 


UNDERSTOOD. 

The 


589 


ji 


614 


NAN 


Same as 142. 


MALES 


590 


Mij 


956 


TSEH 


" " 127. 


THEN 

had 
MEN 


591 


A 


286 


JAN 


" " 62. 


592 


# 


735 


SHlN 


" " 161. 


BODIES 


593 


Ifrj 


719 


'RH 


" " 68. 


BUT 


594 


^ 


329 


KEU 


A dog, petty, contemptible, a 
puppy, a brat. 


PUPPIES' 


695 




876 


T'EU 


The head, the front, the top, 
the first, the beginning. 


HEADS. 


596 


342 


K'l 


Same as 12. 


THEIR 


597 


m 


771 


SHING 


A sound, a voice or tone, a 
note in music, a cry, a wail, 
language. 


VOICES 


598 


■^ 


297 


Jij 


Same as 59. 


RESEMBLED 

those of 


599 


a 


452 


K'tJEN 


A dog, especially 
one. 


3, large 


DOGS 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN". 313 



The women resembled those of China, but the men had a figure and a 
voice like those of dogs. The Chinese could not understand their lan- 
guage. 



of which the women resembled those of China, but of which the men had 
dogs' heads, and barked like dogs. It was impossible to understand their 
language. 



The women were like those of China, but their speech was unintelligible. 
The men had human bodies, but their heads were those of dogs, and their 
voices resembled the barking of dogs. 



dwellings. The women resembled those of the Middle Kingdom (China), 
but the words of their language could not be understood. The males 
had human bodies, but puppies' heads, and their voices resembled those 
of dogs 



314 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


600 


1?^ 


140 


601 


s: 


342 


602 


i 


706 


603 


^ 


1113 


604 


yh 


795 


605 


R 


874 


606 




342 


607 


* 


270 


608 


ia 


297 


609 


in 


713 


610 


«s 


96 


611 


+ 


920 


612 


n 


1047 


613 




9G9 


614 


1t 


342 


615 


m 


206 


616 


[^ 


245 


61V 
618 


s 
p 


342 

225 


619 


ia 


297 


620 


W 


875 



Sound. 



FEU 
K'l 

sniH 

YIU 
SIAO 
TEU 

K'l 
I 

jCr 

ru 

CHun 

T'U 

TS'IANG 

K'l 
IIING 

HWAN 

K'l 

UU 

JtJ 
TEU 



Definition. 



The bark of a dog, to bark, to 
yelp, to howl, as canine 
animals do. 

Same as 12. 

" " 63. 

" " 14. 

" " 233. 

A wooden trencher, a dish, 
pulse, legumes, to measure 
out, a peck. 

Same as 12. 

" " 69. 

" " 74. 

To beat down hard, as a 
threshing-floor, to ram down 
the earth, to make chunam 
pavements or adobe walls. 

Same as 43. 

" " 50. 

A wall, built of mud, stone, 
or brick. 

Same as 12. 

Form, figure, shape, contour, 
the body, manner, style, to 
appear. 

To revolve, to encircle, to en- 
viron, to go around, a circle, 
a ball, round. 

Same as 12. 

An inner door, a door having 
only one leaf, a hole, an 
opening. 

Same as 69. 

A hole, a burrow, a drain, 
loss, waste, damage, to dig a 
hole. 



Translation. 



BARKING 

(or howling). 

THEIR 

EATING 

POSSESSED 

SIAO- 

TEU 

(little beans), 

THEIR 

CLOTHING 

RESEMBLED 

CLOTH 

(of linen or cotton). 

BEATING 
DOWN 



EARTH 

they 

MADE 
ADOBE WALLS. 



THEIR 
SHAPE 

was 
ROUND, 

and 
THEIR 
DOORS 

RESEMBLED 
BURROWS. 



THE KINGDOM OF WOMEN. 31 5 



These people fed upon small beans, and had clothing made of a species 
of linen cloth ; and the walls of their houses were constructed of earth, 
built up in a circular form. 



These islanders fed upon small legumes, and had garments of a species 
of cloth, and constructed houses of a round shape from beaten earth, with 
a single opening as an entrance. 



Their food was small pulse; their garments were like cotton. The 
walls of their houses were of adobie, round in shape, and the entrance 
like that to a den. 



barking (or howling). Among their food was siao-teu (" little beans " or 
kernels— possibly an attempt to both transcribe and translate the Mexican 
word CENTLi '^^^ or cintli,***^ meaning maize). Their clothing resembled 
linen (or perhaps cotton) cloth. Beating down the earth, they made adobe 
walls of a round shape, the doors of which resembled burrows. 



316 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Pago. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


621 


>C 


1041 


WlN 


Same as 89. 


MARKED 


622 


# 


735 


SHlN 


" " 161. 


BODIES. 


623 


-^ 


1041 


WlN 


Same as 89. 


The 
MARKED 


624 
625 
626 




735 
525 
759 


SHlN 

LIANG 

SHI 


" " 161. 

" " 552. 

Time, a season, an hour, a 
period, a Chinese hour, a 
quarter of a year, while. 


BODIES 

country, in the 

LIANG 

dynasty's 
TIME, 


627 


^ 


1041 


WAN 


To hear, to learn by report, 
hearing, fame, news, to 
state to, small, a noise. 


WAS RE- 
PORTED 


628 
629 
630 




1082 

941 

1057 


YEN 
TSAI 
WO 


Same as 188. 

" " 27. 

The Japanese, yielding, trim- 
ming. 


TRULY 

to be 

SITUATED 
from the 

JAPANESE 


631 


m 


491 


KWOH 


Same as 5. 


COUNTRY 


632 


^ 


930 


TUNG 


" " 31. 


EAST- 


633 


:ib 


709 


POH 


" " 108. 


NORTH 


634 


-b 


987 


TS'IH 


" " 213. 


SEVEN 


635 


"f 


980 


TS'IEN 


" " 468. 


THOUSAND 

and 


636 


^ 


1121 


Yt 


" " 34. 


MORE 


637 


ft 


518 


LI 


" " 35. 


LI. 

Its 


688 


A 


286 


JlN 


" " 62. 


PEOPLE 

's 


639 

640 


fi 


884 
1113 


T'l 
YIU 


" " 481. 
" " 14. 


WHOLE 
BODIES 
HAVE 


641 


* 


1041 


WAN 


" " 89. 


MARKS 


642 


*p 


297 


Jtj 


" " 59. 


LIKE 


643 


w 


756 


SHEU 


A wild animal, a beast, a 
hairy brute, a gamekeeper, 
brutal, violent. 


WILD BEASTS. 


644 


K 


342 


K'l 


Same as 12. 


THEIR 



THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 317 



Ven-chin is found seven thousand li from Japan, toward the north- 
east. 

This country was made known about 510 or 520 a. d., its inhabitants 
having a figure similar to that of animals. 



The land of the Wen-schin is distant from Japan in a northeasterly 
direction about seven thousand Chinese miles. The bodies of these people 
exhibit all kinds of figures, such as those of animals and the like. 



The kingdom of Ouen-chin was made known (to the Chinese) under the 
dynasty of the Liang (502-587) ; it is situated seven thousand li to the 
northeast of Japan. The men have lines {oueri) upon the body (cJdn) like 
(certain) animals. 



During the Leang dynasty, the following story was current regarding 
Ouen-cJdn : 

They live more than seven thousand liio the northeast of Japan. They 
have their bodies tattooed, and marked like those of certain animals. 



WAN SHAN, OR PICTURED BODIES. 

During the Liang dynasty (a. d. 502-556), it was reported that about 
seven thousand li to the northeast of Japan there was a country whose 
inhabitants had marks on their bodies, such as are on animals. 



MARKED BODIES. 

During the reign of the Liang dynasty (502 to 556 a. d.), it was reported 
that the country of " Marked Bodies " was situated spven thousand li and 
more to the northeast of the country of Japan. Its people have marks 
upon their bodies like (those upon ?) wild beasts. 



318 



AN mGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


645 


m 


628 


NGOH 


The forehead ; the front, or 
M'hat is before ; a fixed or 
regular number or quan- 
tity ; what ought to be or 
is settled by law ; incessant. 


FRONT 

(or forehead) 


646 


h 


741 


SHANG 


To go up, to exalt, upward. 


UPON 








top, above, facing, high. 












ancient, before, superior, 


they 










honourable. 




647 


^ 


1113 


YIU 


Same as 14. 


HAVE 


648 




723 


SAN 


" " 208. 


THREE 


649 


3t 


1041 


WAN 


" " 89. 


MARKS. 

If the 


650 


^ 


1041 


WlN 


" " 89. 


MARKS 


651 


± 


839 


TA 


" " 28, 


LARGE 

and 


652 


a 


70 


CHIH 


To look ahead, straight, di- 
rect, true, exactly, a per- 
pendicular stroke, to 
straighten, to go direct. 


STRAIGHT, 


653 


* 


38 


ch6 


Same as 6. 


THESE 

are 


654 


s 


484 


KWEI 


" " 166. 


NOBLE ; 










• 


but if the 


655 


A 


1041 


WlN 


" " 89. 


MARKS 

are 


656 


A- 


795 


SIAO 


" " 233. 


SMALL 


657 


m 


458 


K'iJH 


Crooked, bent, a bend, false, 
tortuous. 


CROOKED, 


658 


« 


38 


CHE 


Same as 6. 


THESE 


659 


^ 


979 


TSIEN 


Light in estimation, mean. 


IGNOBLE. 








low, ignoble, worthless, to 


The 




+ 






disesteem, to deprecate. 




660 


920 


T'U 


Same as 43. 


LAND 


661 


-fS- 


822 


SUH 


" " 420. 


COMMON 










TEOPLE 


662 


St 


244 


nWAN 


Joy expressed by the " 


High- 


are MERRY, 








voice, jolly, merry, glad. 


ly de- 

■ light- 
ed 


and 


663 


iM 


654 


LOH 


pleased, to rejoice. 
Pleasure, quiet, to rejoice 


REJOICE IN 










in, to take delight in. 








^ 






dissipation, music. 


merry , 




664 


1065 


WUH 


Same as 285. 


ARTICLES' 


665 


m 


157 


FUNG 


A large goblet, full cup, abun- 


ABUNDANCE 








dant, plenteous, fertile, pro- 












lific, plenty, copious. 




666 


rfn 


719 


'RH 


Same as 68. 


ALTHOUGH 


667 


Bl 


979 


TSIEN 


" " 659. 


POOR IN 










QUALITY. 


668 


^ 


207 


HING 


" " 245. 




TRAVELING 



THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 319 



They traced different lines upon their faces, the form of which served 
to distinguish the chief men of the nation from the common people. 

It was, for the rest, a fertile country, where all that is necessary to sus- 
tain life might be found in abundance. 



They have three lines upon the forehead ; the large and straight indi- 
cate the nobles, the small and crooked the common people of the nation. 



Those who have three straight lines upon the forehead are esteemed (or 
considered as noble). If the lines are small and crooked, they are scorned. 
The inhabitants live joyously. The various products are abundant and 
cheap. 

The travelers who go through this country 



Upon the forehead they have three marks or lines. Those which have 
the marks large and straight are chiefs ; those who have only small crooked 
marks are of low condition. Their nature is merry. The productions of 
their country are abundant and cheap. The traveler 



They had three marks on their foreheads. Those whose marks were 
large and straight belonged to the honorable class, while the lower sort of 
people had small and crooked marks. It is a custom among this people 
to collect a great variety of things of a very poor sort to amuse them- 
selves. Those who travel 



In front (or upon their foreheads) they have three marks. If the 
marks are large and straight, they indicate that those who have them are 
of the higher classes ; but if they are small and crooked, then their pos- 
sessors are of the lower classes. The people of the land are of a merry 
nature, and they rejoice when they have an abundance, even of articles 
that are of little value. Traveling 



320 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 
669 

670 
671 

672 
673 
674 
675 

676 
677 

678 

679 
680 
681 
682 
683 

684 
685 
686 
687 

688 

689 
690 



Character. 



Page. 



Sound. 



Definition. 


Translation. 


A guest, a visitor, an ac- 


VISITORS 


quaintance, a customer, a 




stranger, an alien, transi- 


do 


tory, foreign. 




Same as 100. 


NOT 


To take in both hands and 


PREPARE FOR 


offer to, to give, to send a 


THEIR JOUR- 


present, to prepare things 


NEY 


for a journey, to supply. 




Rations, soldiers' pay, food. 


FOOD, 


provisions, taxes in kind. 


and they 


Same as 14. 


HAVE 




their 


" " 84. 


DWELLING 


The part of the house covered 


SHELTER. 


by the eaves, to cover, to 




shelter, wide, vast, terri- 


They are 


tory. 




Same as 85. 


DESTITUTE OF 


" " 86. 


FORTIFICA- 




TIONS 




and 


" " 87. 


WALLED 




CITIES. 




The 


" " 5. 


COUNTRY 


" " 217. 


KING 


" " 567. 


RESIDENCE 


" " 576 


BUILDING 
is 


To adorn, to paint, to orna- 


ADORNED 


ment, to gloss over, to pre- 




tend, to excuse, a facing, 




an ornament. 




Same as 49. 


BY MEANS OF 


" " 329. 


GOLD 




and 


" " 330. 


SILVER 




and 


Whatever is noble, precious, 


PRECIOUS 


or beautiful, rare, excel- 




lent, to prize. 


and 


Elegant, fair, beautiful, flow- 


BEAUTIFUL 


ery, bright, a pair, to de- 




pend on, to tie, a beam, a 
boat. 


(objects) 


Same as 191. 


ABOUT 




the 


" " 84. 


DWELLING. 



^ 



mil 

m 



EE 



m 



429 

717 
964 

524 
1113 
1064 
1126 

1059 

77 

492 

491 
1043 
817 
437 
767 

278 

398 

1101 

15 

524 

292 
1064 



K'OH 

PUH 
TSI 

LIANG 
YIU 

WUH 
YtJ 

WU 
CH'ING 

KWOH 

KWOH 
WANG 

su 

KtJ 
SHIH 



KIN 
YIN 

chIn 

LI 



JAO 
WUH 



THE LAND OF "MAEKED BODIES." 321 



Their towns or villages were unwalled. The dwelling of the king was 
ornamented with precious things. 



(Not translated.) 



have no need to furnish themselves with provisions. They have houses. 
The cities are not walled. The palace of the king is ornamented with 
gold and silver. The exterior is all covered (literally, " surrounded ") 
with precious substances of a great beauty. The inhabitants 



easily finds food [M. d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, on page 60 of his " Eth- 
nography," translates this passage : " The traveler has no need to carry 
food with him — the country furnishing it to him in abundance "]. The 
Ouen-chin have houses, but no walled cities. The habitation of their 
king is ornamented with gold, silver, and jewels. Surrounding (this habi- 
tation) 



or peddle do not carry any provision with them. 

They have houses of various kinds, but no walled towns. The palace 
of the king is adorned with gold, silver, and jewels in a sumptuous man- 
ner. The buildings are surrounded 



visitors do not prepare food for their journeys, and they have the shelter 
of their (the inhabitants') dwellings. They have no fortifications or 
walled cities. The residence of the king of the country is adorned with 
gold and silver, and precious and beautiful objects about the dwelling. 



21 



322 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 

691 
692 

693 

694 
695 

696 

697 
698 
699 
700 
'701 
702 
703 

704 
705 

706 

707 
708 
709 

710 
711 



Character. 



3t 



« 
m 
m 
m 
n 



± 

m 



1047 
983 

478 

1095 
25 

769 

278 

781 

1101 

1124 

956 

549 

1118 

781 
1101 

53 

741 

762 

1149 

15 
663 



Sound. 



WEI 

TS'IEN 

KWANG 

YIH 
CHANG 

SHIH 

I 

SHUT 
YIN 

Ytr 

TSEH 
HIANG 

Yij 

SHUI 
YIN 

CHI 

SHANG 

SHI 
YUNG 

CHlN 
PAO 



Same as 50. 

The moat or fosse around a 
town, a ditch to lead water 
in, irrigation, to dig out. 

Broad, extensive, wide, spa- 
cious, large, ample, stout, 
to enlarge. 

Same as 194. 

" " 538. 

" " 65. Real, solid, 
hard, full, compact, to fill, 
to cram. 

Same as 49. 

" " 494. ) 

V Quicksilver. 
" " 330. ) 

Rain, a shower, to rain. 

Same as 127. 

" " 443. 



" 177. As, to, to be- 



come. 



Same as 494. 



(Quicksilver. 

" " 40. " To pass from 
one state to another." 

Same as 646. 

" " 331. 

To use, to employ, to cause, 
useful, by, with, thereby. 

Same as 687. ] 

Jewels, 
Precious, valuable, V valu- 

a gem, a coin, ables, 

value, noble. J 



Translation. 



They 
MAKE 

DITCH 
of a 

BREADTH 

of 

ONE 

ROD 

(of ten Chinese 

feet), which is 

FILLED 



BY MEANS OF 
WATER- 
SILVER. 
When it 
RAINS, 

THEN 

the rain 
FLOWS 

UPON 

the 
WATER- 
SILVER 



SURFACE. 

In their 
MARKETS 

(or bartering) they 
USE 



PRECIOUS 
GEMS. 



THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 323 



A ditch might be seen there which appeared to be filled with quick- 
silver, and this matter, esteemed in commerce, became liquid and flowing 
when it had imbibed water from the rain. 

M. de Guignes adds, from another source : " They exposed their con- 
demned criminals to wild beasts, and they deemed those innocent from 
whom the animals took flight." 



(Not translated.) 



dig a ditch one chang (ten Chinese feet) long, and fill it with quicksilver. 
When it rains, the water runs upon the quicksilver. In the markets (in 
the place of money) they use the most esteemed fruits. [Note. — M. 
Julien has evidently mistaken the character pao, " a gem " (see No. 
711), for the very similar character shih, "fruit" (see No. 696), and 
hence has erroneously translated the last word " fruits " instead of 
" gems."— E. P. v.] 



there is a ditch of ten cubits width, which is filled with quicksilver. 
When it rains, the water flows upon the quicksilver. The transactions 
in their markets are made by means of precious objects. 

M. d'Hervey de Saint-Denys adds, in his " Ethnography," page 60, the 
following, derived from the " nan-ssk," i. e. : He who has committed a 
petty crime is scourged. He who is accused of a crime deserving death is 
thrown to wild beasts to be devoured. If the accusation is calumnious, 
the beasts keep at a distance from him, it is said (instead of devouring 
him) ; then, after a night (of trial), he is set at liberty. 



with a moat, over ten feet broad. When it is filled with quicksilver, and 
the rain is allowed to flow off from the quicksilver, the water is then re- 
garded in the markets as a precious rarity. 



They make a ditch of a breadth of one rod (of ten Chinese feet, or 
nearly twelve English feet), which is filled with " water-silver " (i. e., ice). 
When it rains, then the rain flows upon the surface of the water-silver. 
In their traffic they use precious gems (or valuables, as the standard of 
value, instead of gold or silver). 



324 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


712 


± 


839 


TA 


Same as 28. 


GREAT 


713 


m 


164 


HAN 


This character is composed of 
"water" and "hardship." The 
Milky Way. The large branch 
of the Yang-tsz Kiver. A Chi- 
nese; relating to China. The 
Han dynasty, which was named 
from the Duko of Uan. 


HAN. " 


714 


i^ 


839 


TA 


Same as 28. 


GREAT 


715 
716 
717 
718 
719 




164 

525 

759 

1041 

1082 


HAN 
LLVNG 

SHI 
WAN 

YEN 


" " 713. 
" " 552. 
" " 626. 
" " 627. 
" " 188. 


HAN, 

during the 

LIANG 

dynasty's 

TIME, 

was 

REPORTED TO 

BE 

TRULY 


720 
721 




941 
1041 


TSAI 
WlN 


" " 27. 
" " 89. 


SITUATED 

from 
MARKED 


722 


* 


735 


SHiN 


" " 161. 


BODIES' 


723 


1^1 


491 


KWOH 


*' " 5. 


KINGDOM 


724 


* 


930 


TUNG 


" " 31. 


EAST 


725 


¥. 


1060 


WU 


" " 383. 


FIVE 


726 


^ 


980 


TS'IEN 


" " 468. 


THOUSAND 


727 


m 


1121 


YtJ 


" " 34. 


MORE 


728 
729 




518 
1059 


LI 
WU 


" " 35. 
" " 85. 


LI. 

Its people are 

DESTITUTE OF 


730 




698 


PING 


" " 98. 


MILITARY 


731 


:fe 


489 


KWO 


A kind of lance, a javelin, a 
spear, weapons, war. 


WEAPONS, 

and do 


732 


^^ 


717 


PUH 


Same as 100. 


NOT 


733 


5fe 


461 


KUNG 


" " 101. 


WAGE 


734 
735 


DPf> 


45 
155 


CHEN 
FUNG 


" " 102. 
" " 453. 


WAR. 

Their 

MANNERS' 



THE GREAT HAN COUNTRY. 325 



At a distance of five thousand U from Ven-chin, toward the east, Ta- 
han was found. The inhabitants of this country had no military weapons ; 
their customs 



In the times of the Leang dynasty, in the first half of the sixth century 
of our era, the Chinese heard of a land which lay five thousand of their 
miles easterly from the country of the "Pictured People," and named it 
" Ta-han^'' or " Great China." The people of Ta-han carried no weapons, 
and knew nothing of war and strife. In their customs and usages, the 
people of Ta-han, on the whole, 



The kingdom of Ta-han was made known (to the Chinese) under the 
dynasty of the Leang (502-558) ; it is situated about five thousand li to 
the east of the kingdom of Oueu-chin. The inhabitants have no arms, 
and do not wage war. Their manners and their 



In the time of the Leang dj-nasty, it was said of the kingdom of Ta- 
han : This kingdom is situated to the east of the country of the Ouen-chin 
more than five thousand U. Its people have no arms, and do not wage 
war. Their manners 



TA HAN, OR GREAT CHINA. 
It was reported, during the Liang dynasty, that this kingdom lay more 
than five thousand li east of Wan Shan. The inhabitants have no sol- 
diers or weapons, and never carry on war. Their manners and 



GREAT HAN. 

During the reign of the Liang dynasty. Great Has was reported to be 
situated five thousand li or more to the east of the " Marked Bodies " 
country. Its people have no military weapons, and do not wage war. 



326 



AN INGLOEIOPS COLUMBUS. 



No. 


Character. 


Page. 


Sound. 


Definition. 


Translation. 


'736 


-fS 


822 


SUH 


Same as 420. 


RUDENESS 


73Y 


n 


700 


PING 


Two together, both, with, and, 
even with, to compare. 


COMPARED 


73S 
739 




1125 
1041 


YtT 
WlN 


Same as 369. 
" " 89. 


WITH 

that of the 
MARKED 


740 


* 


735 


SIIAN 


" " 161. 


BODIES 


741 
742 


il 

n 


491 
933 


KWOH 
TUNG 


" " 5. 
" " 372. 


COUNTRY 

the 

SAME, 


743 


rtj 


719 


'RH 


" " 68. 


BUT 

their 


744 

745 
746 




1083 

1126 

281 


YEN 
YtJ 

I 


" " 584. 

" " 585. 

To divide, different, foreign, 
to oppose, a difference. 


LANGUAGE 

'8 

WORDS 

are 

DIFFERENT. 



THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 

In all the foregoing translations the character shih (No. 696, 
page 322) has been rendered " filled." Its fundamental meaning 
seems to be " fruit," from which the secondary signification of 
" solid, hard, compact, full, crammed," was derived. When used 
as a verb, it seems to me to mean " to solidify, to harden, to pack 
together, to cram " ; and, while it is applicable to the process of 
filling a confined space with solid substances or articles closely 
packed together, I doubt whether it can be used with pro- 
priety to express the filling of a receptacle with a liquid. It 
therefore appears to me that the word, when used as a verb, 
should be translated " to harden, to solidify, to make compact," 
rather than " to fill," and that the description of the country 
should be read (punctuating after characters Nos. 689, 695, 699, 
and 707): 

" The residence of the king of the country is adorned with 
gold and silver, and precious and beautiful objects about it. 
The dwellings consist of excavations of a breadth of one rod. 
These (dwellings) are made solid, hard, compact, or impervious 



THE GREAT HAN COUNTRY. 327 



e4 
p^g were essentially the same as those of the people of Ven-chin, but they 

^p had a different language. 

o 












resembled the "Pictured People." The two nations, however, spoke 
quite different languages. 



customs are the same as those of the kingdom of Ouen^hin, but the lan- 
guage is different. 



are the same as those of the Ouen-chiTif but their language is different. 



customs are the same as those of the Wan Sban, bat their speech 
differs. 



The rudeness of their customs is the same as that of the people of the 
country of " Marked Bodies," but the words of their language are dif- 
ferent. 



by the use of water-silver [i. e., ice]. When it rains, then the 
rain flows off from the surface of the water-silver." 

I should understand that Hwui Shan meant to say that the 
walls and roof of the dwellings were made solid and impervious 
to either air or water by means of ice.. The houses of this re- 
gion of the world are described by modern travelers as consist- 
ing of an excavation, with low, earthen side-walls, and a roof of 
earth thrown over beams and branches used for its support. 

If, now, water was poured over these walls and the roof, it 
would soon freeze, and render them compact and impervious to 
rain, so that " when it rained, then the rain would flow off over 
the surface of the ice." 

This translation suggested itself to me at so late a date that 
I have not had time to consult competent Chinese scholars as to 
the possibility of so rendering the passage. I have, therefore, 
followed former translators in the version which is discussed in 
Chapter XIX. I believe, however, that the Chinese text is sus- 
ceptible of the rendition given above, and that such a ver- 
sion removes all difiiculties in the account, and brings Hwui 
Shan's description into strict conformity with the truth. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE LENGTH OF THE LI. — THE NAME "GREAT HAN." 

The direction from Japan in which Fu-sang lay — Variations in standards of meas- 
ure — The Chinese li about one third of a mile in length — The greater length 
of the Japanese li — Possibility of still another standard in Corea — Communi- 
cation between Corea and Japan and between Corea and China — Chinese knowl- 
edge of the route to Japan derived from Corean sources — Fu-sang farther from 
" Great Han " than Japan is — Distances stated with at least approximate accu- 
racy — The country of "Marked Bodies" identified as the Aleutian Islands — Al- 
lowances for changes and misunderstandings — Caesar's account of the inhabit- 
ants of Britain — Maundevile's repetition of the story — " Great Han " identified 
as Alaska — Land found in the regions indicated by Hwui ShSn — Meaning 
of the character " Han " — Nature of the Chinese characters — The manner in 
which they are compounded of two parts — Some characters in which the 
meaning is affected by that of both parts — Application of the character " Han " 
to a swirling stream and to the Milky Way — Hence its possible meaning of 
" dashing water " — Meaning of the name " Alaska " — The breakers of the 
Aleutian Islands — The population — A philological myth — The hypotheses 
upon one of which Hwui Shan's story must be explained — The explanation 
should be consistent. 

Having thus given the Chinese accounts of the land of Fu- 
sang, and of the countries found upon the route from China to 
that region, together with the arguments of former writers as to 
their location, let us now examine the question for ourselves. 

Fortunately, there is no doubt as to the first of the countries 
that is named as lying upon the route. Long before the days of 
Hwui Shan, the Chinese were acquainted with this kingdom of 
Japan, and, when it was mentioned by him, there was no neces- 
sity for describing its location. 

At a distance of over seven thousand li to the northeast of 
Japan, it was stated that the country of " Marked Bodies " was 
to be found. More than five thousand H to the east of this the 
land of " Great Han " was situated, and over twenty thousand 



THE LENGTH OF THE LI. 329 

li easterly from this last-named country lay the land of Fu-sang. 
As it is expressly stated, however, that Fu-sang lay to the east of 
China, and as the greater part of the route from Japan to Great 
Han was in a northeasterly direction, it is evident that Fu-sang 
must have lain farther south than Great Han, and that its true 
bearing from this last country was southeasterly rather than 
east. 

With these explicit statements as to the direction of the 
route, there would be no difficulty in laying it down upon a chart, 
provided that we knew the exact length of the li. 

It is the case, however, that nearly all standards of measure 
were more or less indefinite when they were first established, and 
that, even after having been fixed with some degree of precis- 
ion, they have been subject to change in the course of cent- 
uries. The chief difficulty is found in the earlier stages of civili- 
zation, however. Crawfurd, for instance, in speaking of the 
Javanese, says that,"^* in countries where there are no roads, 
where the principal conveyance is by water, and where the paths 
are circuitous and little frequented, it is not reasonable to sup- 
pose that any determinate measure of considerable distances 
should exist. Such contrivances, although familiar to Europeans, 
are the result of much improvement and civilization. The In- 
dian islanders, in traveling, speak of a day's journey, which, with 
tolerable uniformity, may be reckoned at twenty British miles. 

In another place he states that,"^' from their very nature, 
the measures of grain among the Javanese are indefinite, and 
hardly insure greater accuracy than we imply ourselves when 
we speak of sheaves of corn. In the same district they are tol- 
erably regular in the quantity of grain and straw they contain ; 
but such is the wide difference between the different districts or 
provinces that the same nominal measure is often twice — nay, 
three times — as large in one as in another. 

This difficulty usually ceases to exist, however, by the time 
that the state of civilization is reached which the Chinese had 
attained in the fifth century. Long before that time their stand- 
ards of measure had apparently become so well established that 
they have remained to the present time, with but few other 
changes than those recently made by the Europeans. 

Bretschneider "^ says : " Having often had the opportunity of 
comparing distances given by the Chinese with our measures, I 



330 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

came to the conclusion that we make no considerable error in tak- 
ing three Chinese U of our days as equal to one English mile; and 
it can be proved, from ancient itineraries of the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries, that the length of the Chinese li has not 
changed since that time." 

The " Chinese Eepository " "^'says that there is great difficulty 
in estimating the Chinese li, or mile. It appears, by the " His- 
tory of the Ming Dynasty," that the measures have varied 
under the different dynasties. The Chinese have never been 
able to measure distances by astronomical observations. It may 
be doubted whether they have ever taken the trouble to measure 
roads. On those which are prepared for the emperor, and at great 
expense, the number of li is written up all along the road ; but it 
is a fact that those li are not all of equal length. The traveler, 
when inquiring the distance from one place to another, is told so 
many li, and it is often added, " They are great or small." It is 
admitted that in the north the li are longer than in the south. It 
would appear that popular tradition has determined their number. 
A geography, printed by order of government, states that from 
Canton to Pekin the distance is 8,185 li. As the positions of Can- 
ton and Pekin are known, it seems that they might serve to esti- 
mate the Chinese li; but there is no doubt that the windings of 
the road are included in those 8,185 li. Now, the routes in China, 
both by land and water, wind without end ; so that there seems 
no way of estimating the li with precision. However, it is 
generally believed that there are two hundred li to a degree of 
latitude. 

In another place it states that '" the li, or mile, is an uncer- 
tain measure. Its common measure is 316:^ fathoms, or 1,897^ 
English feet, and it is the usual term in which length is estimat- 
ed. The Chinese reckon 1921- li for a degree of latitude and 
longitude (for a degree of a great circle — say, 65 miles — this is 
1,918 feet) ; but the Jesuits divided the degree into 250 li, each 
li being 1,826 English feet, or the tenth part of a French league, 
which is the established measure at present. A li, according to 
this measurement, is a little more than one third of an English 
mile. 

A long article on the true length of this standard of meas- 
ure '"^^ is also given, in which the same general conclusion is 
reached — that the li is about one third of an English mile. 



THE LENGTH OF THE LI. 331 

Remusat, in a note upon " The Pilgrimage of Fa Hian,'"^' 
makes the statement that the length of the sheu, or cubit, is 
variously estimated : sometimes at two chih (0'610 metres) ; 
sometimes at one chih and two tsim (0-4575 metres). Four sheic 
make one kung (bow), and three hundred kunff make one li. 
According to this calculation the li would be either 549 or 732 
metres. 

Prinsep says that '"'^ a li is not quite one third of a mile ; for 
two hundred li equal a degree of latitude, or some sixty-nine 
statute miles. 

Professor Williams states that ^^°' a discrepancy exists regard- 
ing its precise length, owing to the various measures of the 
chih. It is usually reckoned at 1,825*55 feet, English, which 
gives 2'89 li to an English mile. This is based on the esti- 
mate of 200 li to a degree ; but there were only 180 li to a de- 
gree before Europeans came, which increases its length to 2,028*39 
feet, or 2*6 li to a mile, which is nearer the common estimate ; 
and Summers *^'^ says that the li, or Chinese mile = 316^ fath- 
oms = 1,897^ English feet : 192^ li = 1 degree of latitude or 
longitude, according to the Chinese ; but the Jesuits make 250 
li = 1 degree, each li being = 1,826 feet, or^^ of a French league. 

It will not be necessary to quote other authorities upon the 
subject ; but, at the risk of being tedious, it seemed best to give 
the foregoing, for the purpose of showing that, after all that has 
been said as to the uncertainty as to the true length of the li, 
there is really but little disagreement as to what that length 
was before the coming of the Jesuits, and that if it be estimated 
at one third of an English mile the result will be very close to 
the truth. 

The Chinese li is sometimes stated to be equal to three hun- 
dred and sixty (double) paces, and a comparison of this number 
with the one thousand (double) paces which was the original basis 
for the length of our mile, gives substantially the same result. 

Attention should be called, however, to the fact that, just as 
there is a great difference between the lengths of the English 
mile, the German mile, and the nautical or geographical mile, so 
there is a great difference between the standards of distance 
used in Japan and China, respectively, and there is some reason 
for thinking that still another standard may have been used in 
Corea. 



332 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The Japanese and Coreans, who do not use the letter "/," 
substitute " r " for it, and pronounce the word " r?/' instead of 
" /i." The same character is used by them when writing the 
word, however, that is used by the Chinese for the " //." 

Klaproth*®" says that the ri of Corea, which is the same as 
that of the Mantchoos in China, contains only three and a half 
Japanese matsis, and, as the Japanese ri contains thirty-six 
matsis, ten Corean ri are hardly equal to one Japanese ri. 

This last standard is equal to about three English miles ; and 
if Klaproth is correct in his statement that the Corean ri or li is 
the same as the Chinese, its length is about one third of a mile. 
Oj^pert, in one place,"'' says, however, that thirty Corean li equal 
three English miles ; and if his statement can be relied upon, this 
reduces the Corean li to about one tenth of a mile. 

About a century after the visit of Hwui Shan, Li Yen-shau, 
who copied the official records of the story of the Buddhist priest, 
also gave an account of the country of Japan, in which (or in 
the copies which the Chinese now have) the distance from the 
port of Lo-lang, in western Corea, to Japan, is stated to be 
twelve thousand li. As the actual distance to the capital of 
Japan is not more than fifteen hundred miles, it follows either 
that there is a serious error in his account, or else that the li used 
as a standard must be only about one tenth of a mile in length. 
This statement of Li Yen-shau's has been the cause of nearly 
all the misunderstanding as to the true position of the coun- 
tries described by Hwui Shan. No other instance seems to occur 
in the Chinese records in which the length of the li varies mate- 
rially from one third of a mile ; yet from this single instance, of 
a standard apparently only one tenth of a mile in length, used 
by a writer who lived long after the days of Hwui Shan, his 
whole story has been discredited, and an effort has been made to 
show that the distance which he described as twenty thousand li 
was in reality only the trifling distance between the island of 
Saghalien and Japan. 

It will be shown in one of the following chapters that the 
chief early intercourse of the Japanese was with the people of 
Corea. These in turn were frequently visited by the Chinese. 
Klaproth'**' says that there was constant communication between 
the two countries, and that Corea paid tribute to China through- 
out the fifth and sixth centuries. Their histories also show that 



THE LENGTH OF THE LI. 333 

when the Chinese visited Japan it was by way of Corea. It 
is therefore evident that the Chinese relied upon the Coreans for 
information as to the route to Japan, and for assistance in reach- 
ing that country, and nothing can be more probable than that 
Li Yen-shau, when gathering information as to Japan, obtained 
much of it, either directly or indirectly, from Corean sources. 
Whether it is a fact that the Corean li is, or ever has been, only 
one tenth of a mile in length, and that the Chinese borrowed the 
description of the route given by the Coreans, without making the 
correction for the difference in the length of the li used in the 
two countries, or whether, as is indicated by a discovery of M. de 
Rosny, mentioned in a note given in Chapter XXXIV, a seri- 
ous ei-ror was made by the Chinese in copying from their early 
records, by which they doubled the distance, must be left to the 
decision of competent scholars ; but that the true explanation of 
the great distance that is named will be found either in one 
cause or the other, there seems little room to doubt. 

Whatever the cause of the error in the description of the 
route to Japan may have been, Hwui Shan, when describing the 
length of his journey, to the representative of the Chinese em- 
peror, could not have meant by the word li anything else than 
the distance then called a li by the Chinese — that is to say, about 
one third of an English mile. He certainly can not be blamed 
for his failure to foresee that a century after his death his story 
would be confused with another account, in which there would 
be either a serious error or else in which another standard of 
distance would be used. 

Those who have placed Fu-sang in Japan have either ignored 
so many difficulties, or disposed of them so satisfactorily to them- 
selves, that the trifling discrepancy that, according to their views, 
the distance from Japan to Great Han was twelve thousand li 
(of a length never used elsewhere in Chinese accounts), while 
the distance from Great Han to Japan (Fu-sang) was twenty 
thousand li, seems unworthy of notice. 

In addition to the difficulty which a number of former in- 
vestigators have found in determining, approximately, the 
length of the li, the second objection is raised that Hwui 
Shan, or the mythical Chinese voyagers who have been sup- 
posed to have visited the country of Marked Bodies and Great 
Han, could not have had any means of determining with accu- 



334: AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

racy the distances which they traveled or the direction of their 
voyage. 

Admitting that the distances and the direction may not be 
accurately given, it certainly does not follow that they are not 
a reasonable approximation to the truth. Surely there was no 
greater difficulty in those days than there is now in making a 
rough estimate, with reasonable accuracy, as to the distance 
traveled and the general direction of the course. Of all the 
men who sail the seas, it is doubtful whether there is one who, 
if he had pursued a southerly course of a thousand or twelve 
hundred miles, could be so egregiously mistaken as to believe 
that he had sailed seven thousand miles easterly ; and if it be as- 
sumed that Hwui Shan attempted to describe his journey in 
good faith, it certainly ought not to be taken for granted that 
he was liable to make so gross a blunder. 

Klaproth says '^** that the navigators who visit the Japanese 
Islands estimate even the distances which they have themselves 
traveled only approximately. It is evident, however, that they 
do estimate them approximately, and would not be likely to be 
guilty of such stupidity as calling south, east, and thinking one 
mile to be seven. 

The "Chinese Repository,"'"" when referring to distances 
reckoned in " days' journeys," says that " the day's journey is 
usually considered one hundred li, a little more or less " ; and it 
is not improbable that the Buddhist traveler, when journeying 
along the shore or paddling from island to island, estimated each 
day's journey as about this distance. However this may have 
been, there can be no question that a man possessed of courage, 
persistency, and hardihood sufficient to carry him through a 
journey of forty-one years, in countries previously unknown, 
can hardly have lacked the amount of knowledge necessary 
to enable him to distinguish between east and south, or be- 
tween one mile and half a dozen. When he says that the 
country of Marked Bodies lies twenty-three hundred miles 
northeasterly from Japan, we may grant that this is a mere 
estimate. Possibly the distance was only two thousand miles, 
or it may have been twenty-five hundred ; the course, also, may 
have varied a few degrees from northeast ; but if we are to as- 
sume that he may have meant a country less than five hundred 
miles from Japan, and lying directly north, we assume that he 



THE LENGTH OF THE LI. 335 

was either grossly ignorant or thoroughly dishonest, and in either 
case it would be useless to examine his story further. 

Let us for the present, however, proceed upon the assump- 
tion that he may have been honest and intelligent, as he must 
have been brave and resolute, and see whether his story is or is 
not true. 

If we sail from Japan, in a northeasterly direction, for a 
distance of some two thousand miles, where do we find our- 
selves ? N'ot in the island of Jesso, but among the Aleutian 
Islands. Do these islands or their people correspond with Hwui 
Shan's account ? If they do, we have a strong proof that his 
story is true. If they do not, it is useless to look elsewhere for 
the country described by him, and his story may be dismissed 
as false. 

Allowance must be made, however, for the changes that 
have taken place in the fourteen centuries that have elapsed 
since the time of his travels. It could not be expected that all 
the customs mentioned by him should have come down to the 
present day, or that those which still exist should be found 
identical in all respects with the form which they had so long 
ago. It is also to be presumed that those which have survived 
will be found, in many cases, scattered among tribes now living 
at some distance from the region inhabited by their ancestors 
fourteen hundred years ago. 

Caesar's account of the people of Gaul and Britain antedates 
by only some four centuries Hwui Shan's story of the lands 
visited by him ; but if we had no other means of proving that 
Cgesar actually visited western Europe and England than a com- 
parison of his account with existing customs, his credit would 
suffer as has our Buddhist priest's. 

When speaking of the people of Britain, he says''* that they 
do not consider it right to eat the hare, the domestic fowl, or the 
goose, and adds that'" "most of the inhabitants of the interior 
do not sow grain, but live upon milk and flesh, and clothe them- 
selves in skins. All the men of this country dye themselves with 
woad, which gives them a bluish colour, and makes their appear- 
ance in battle more terrible. Their hair is long, and all parts 
of their body are shaved except the head and upper lip. Ten 
or twelve have their wives in common, usually brothers with 
their brothers, or parents with their children ; but the offspring 



336 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

are considered the children of him by whona the maiden was 
first espoused." 

It is a curious illustration of the persistency with which his- 
torical tales survive, and of the fact that even the most incredible 
are frequently founded upon some warped or perverted truth, 
and hence are deserving of study in order that the truth which 
they contain may be separated from the error, that Sir John 
Maundevile, returning to England some twelve centuries later, 
with his mind filled with marvels — not only those which he had 
himself seen in the Orient, but also all that he had been able 
to gather from others regarding the countries still farther east 
— should have brought back to Britain the story which had 
started from it so long before. The tale had survived, but the 
location of the land had been forgotten, and hence it was sup- 
posed to be situated in the distant East. 

1835 u Beyonde that Yle, is another Yle, where is gret mul- 
tytude of folk ; and thei wole not for nothing eten Flesche of 
Hares, ne of Hennes, ne of Gees ; and yit thei bryngen forthe y 
now, for to seen hem and to beholden hem only. But thei eten 
Flesche of alle other Bestes, and drynken Mylk. In that Centre 
thei taken hire Doughtres and hire Sustres to here Wyfes, and 
hire other Kynneswomen. And gif there ben 10 or 12 men or 
rao dwellynge in an Hows, the Wif of everyche of hem schalle 
ben comoun to hem alle, that duellen in that Hows." 

Returning again to the account of the Buddhist traveler, it 
will be seen that he says that, about sixteen hundred miles east 
of the land of "Marked Bodies," there lay a country called 
Great Ha^st. At about that distance east of the center of the 
Aleutian Islands, Alaska is found ; and if his story is true. Great 
Han was located in or near Alaska. 

It should first be noticed that here are two instances in which 
land exists in the Pacific Ocean, just where he says it is to 
be found. A glance at a map will show how unlikely it is that 
he would be right as to the existence of land in a certain direc- 
tion, and at a certain distance, if his story were but a figment of 
the imagination. With all the islands in the Pacific Ocean to 
choose from, those who attempt to locate Fu-sang elsewhere 
than in America, can do so only by ignoring both the distance 
and the direction. If any other li than the true one is used, 
and if the bearings mentioned by Hwui Shan are preserved, the 



THE NAME "GREAT HAK" 337 

end of the route will fall into the fathomless depths of the Pa- 
cific. 

The name of the easternmost of the two countries is given as 
^, Ta (Great), '^, Hak. The last character being made up of 
two parts, meaning respectively " water " and " hardship." 

Instead of being composed,^^'" as is frequently supposed, of a 
vast number of arbitrary and complicated symbols, the charac- 
ters of the Chinese language are compounded of very simple 
elements, which carry along with them into their derivatives 
something of their own meaning, while each generally preserves 
its figure unchanged. These elementary characters supply the 
place of an alphabet ; but it is an alphabet of ideas, not of 
sounds. 

The earliest Chinese characters were evidently pictorial ; but 
pictures could not be made which would clearly express all ideas. 
Among the means resorted to, for obtaining characters to express 
conceptions that could not be indicated by a simple sketch, was 
that of combining two familiar pictures to give rise to a new 
idea, sometimes of an abstraction, sometimes the name of a 
real thing.''^*"' For instance, a man with a large eye represents 
" seeing " ; tioo men, " to follow " ; three men, " many " ; "** 
tioo men on the ground, " sitting." 

All other means failing, the present great mass of characters 
was formed by a principle from which the class is called "pho- 
netic"; because in the characters classed under it, while one 
part (called the " radical ") preserves its meaning, the other part 
(called the " phonetic " or " primitive ") is used to give its own 
sound to the whole figure. This part does sometimes, however, 
2393 convey also its symbolic meaning as well as its sound. 

As a specimen of the influence which the primitive frequently 
exerts upon the meaning of the compound, the following is 
given : '"" 

Jg, Ti, means low or mean ; when compounded with the radi- 
cal " man," it means a low man, a base fellow, a vagabond ; when 
with "heart," it means a sordid mind, meanness ; when with 
" hand," it means underhanded, crafty ; when with a " tree," 
the roots ; when with a " stone," the foundation ; when with a 
" horn," to put the horn down, to gore ; when with an " eye," to 
look down, humble, condescending ; when with a "boat," per- 
haps the bottom of the boat or rudder ; when with " words," 
22 



338 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

low words, vulgarisms, slander ; and when with " grain," ripe 
grain that bends down. 

G. T. Lay, in an article in the " Chinese Repository," insists 
upon the importance of recognizing the influence of the " pho- 
netic " upon the meaning of the character, in the following 
words : '»" 

" The Chinese primitives or vocal portions may not be ex- 
changed (for others of the same sound) without producing the 
greatest change in the sense. Every student of a few months' 
standing knows that you can not substitute one primitive for an- 
other without producing a different sense ; with this fact before 
him, will any man have the hardihood to tell me that the primi- 
tive in composition serves only for the purposes of sound ? "We 
acknowledge that Chinese sometimes exchange these primitives 
in their books, and more frequently in their petitions, letters, and 
private documents, and thus occasion doubt and difficulties which 
might have been avoided. The number of substitutions is al- 
ways in the direct ratio of the composer's ignorance of the written 
language. Many a time has the foreigner mortified the pride of 
the native by showing him that he had written the wrong primi- 
tive, and perhaps not less frequently has the native repaid the 
little affront by pointing out a similar mistake which the foreign- 
er had made. This is an every-day proof that the Chinese rec- 
ognize the principle that the primitive has a meaning as well as 
a sound." 

There are at least five or six hundred common Chinese char- 
acters in which it is universally admitted that the meaning of 
the so called "phonetic" is preserved in the compound char- 
acter. 

Let us see whether this character Han should not be in- 
cluded in this class. Professor Williams defines the word as 
follows : " The Milky Way ; the large branch of the Yang-tsz' 
Kiver ; a Chinese ; relating to China ; the Han dynasty, which 
was named from the duke of Han." 

Its most common use at present is in the meaning " Chinese." 
The " Land of Han " is China,*'^' and hence the term " Great Han " 
has been considered to mean either " Great China," or a land 
inhabited by " Great Chinese." It is evident, however, that 
the term " Han " was first applied to the Chinese as subjects 
of the Han dynasty,"^^ which took its name from its founder, 



THE NAME "GEEAT HAN." 339 

the duke of Han. He in turn derived his title, like many 
English noblemen, from the small district over which he first 
ruled, and this district took its name from the river Han, upon 
the bank of which it was situated. 

If we now inquire how the character in question first came 
to be applied to the river Han, and if we bear in mind that the 
character is composed of two parts, meaning " water " and " hard- 
ship," it is readily seen that it may have been adopted as the 
name of the river to express the idea that its leading character- 
istic was that its " water " could be navigated only with " diffi- 
culty," if at all. The Chinese "Historical Classic," the Shu 
King, as translated by Mr. James Legge, mentions " the Han 
with its eddying movements," "*'^ and Professor Williams refers 
to "^^ the swirling waters of the river Han, thus showing that 
the two parts of the character correctly describe the stream. 

The character Han also means the Milky Way."^^ And here 
again the idea of foaming, dashing water is apparent ; the Milky 
Way resembling a foaming stream among the stars. 

When Hwui Shan reached the Aleutian Islands, or Alaska, 
what name did he find the country to bear ? what was the mean- 
ing of the name, and how would he probably attempt to tran- 
scribe it in Chinese characters ? 

It is stated in the " Chinese Repository " that '"*'' the etymolo- 
gies of the Chinese are sometimes deserving of notice as an index 
of their habits of thought, and modes of combining relative 
ideas in order to embody a new one ; and Professor Williams says 
that "" scholars are fastidious as to the introduction of merely 
phonetic words into their compositions, and prefer to translate 
everything that they can. 

Hence, the probability is strong that Hwui Shan would at- 
tempt both to translate the name, and to adopt a character which 
would to some extent describe the country. 

Dall gives the following statement as to the name applied by 
the natives of the Aleutian Islands to the adjoining continent, 
and as to its meaning : "'* 

"Alaska. — This name, now applied to the whole of our new 
territory, is a corruption, very far removed from the original 
word. When the early Russian traders first reached Unalashka, 
they were told by the natives that to the eastward was a great 
land or territory. This was called by the natives Al-ak-shak, or 



340 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Al-ay-ek-sa. The island now known as Unalashka was called 
Na-gun-alayeksa, or the land near Alayeksa. From Alayeksa 
the name became, by corruption, Alaksa, Alashka, Aliaska, and 
finally Alaska. . . . We have then Alaska for the territory, Ali- 
aska for the peninsula, and Unalashka for the island ; all derived 
from the same root, meaning a great country or continent.'''' 

Pinart also states that among the Aleuts ^"^' a tradition of tbe 
people is mentioned, in which they say that, before coming to 
their present home, they lived " in a great land, which was also 
called AliaJchshha — that is to say, ' a continent,'' " 

Coxe also mentions the acquaintance of the Aleutian Island- 
ers with the size of the adjoining continent, in the following 
words : "*^ 

" Glottof did not land till he reached the last and most east- 
ward of these islands, called by the inhabitants Kadiak ; from 
which the natives said it was not far to the coast of a wide, ex- 
tended, woody continent." 

Hence, when Hwui Shan was in the Aleutian Islands, he, too, 
probably heard of the " great land," " the continent," to the 
east ; and this he indicated by the character ta, meaning "great." 

That the character is used with this meaning, and not as a 
mere phonetic, is quite conclusively proven by the fact that in 
the twenty-eight cases in which it is used by Hiuen Ts'ang,*"* in 
the names of towns or districts of India, it is invariably a trans- 
lation of the Sanskrit " Maha," having the same meaning, while 
in the twenty cases in which the syllable " ta " is transliterated, 
some other character is always used.^^''' 

"While it is possible that he may have meant " China " by the 
character *' Han," thus intending to call the continent " Great 
China," and so indicate the fact that it was larger than China, it 
seems more probable that he meant to go back to the original 
meaning of the character, and thus indicate that it was a great 
country of dashing water, or a great country reached with diffi- 
culty by water. 

This would be very appropriate, as Langsdorff says that ^^'' 
the current, or the influence of the ebb and flood tides, is very vio- 
lent and irregular here between the numerous islands, and needs 
to be carefully watched by every - sailor. While the Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica states that ™^ the Aleutian Islands are bare and 
mountainous, and their coasts are rocky and surrounded by 



THE NAME "GREAT HAK" 341 

breakers, by which the approach is rendered exceedingly dan- 
gerous. 

Although the population of the Aleutian Islands is now 
very small, the islands were once thickly peopled. Langsdorff 
says, for instance, that ""^ about 1770 the population of Kadiak 
and the neighbouring islands was estimated at fifty thousand 
people. 

One curious indication of the location of the country named 
" Han " is found in the Chinese character j(^, of which the Hok- 
keen pronunciation is Chay. This is defined as '^^ "driftwood 
floating down a river, upon which they fable that genii ride in 
order to float into the Milky Way, or Heavenly River, and thus get 
among the stars." Here is evidently a myth founded upon the 
character " Han," which was applied by Hwui Shan to a country 
far to the northeast, upon which driftwood floating in the Kuro- 
siwo, or gulf-stream of the Pacific, would ultimately he thrown. 
After the existence of this country was partly forgotten, some 
surviving statement, that the driftwood floated to " Han," was, 
on account of the fact that one of the meanings of the character 
is "the Milky Way," supposed to mean that the driftwood 
floated to this Heavenly River. 

Before taking up the account of the lands of "Marked 
Bodies " and " Great Han," and examining them clause by clause 
to see whether similar accounts are given by other travelers to 
the same region, attention should be called to the fact that a 
thorough examination of Hwui Shan's story should lead to some 
one of the following conclusions : 

First. — His story is entirely false ; nothing more than an 
effort of the imagination of a " lying Buddhist priest." 

Second. — He himself had not visited the countries which he 
described, but he had heard some account of them from others 
who had visited them, and he attempted to repeat their stories. 

Third. — He had actually visited the countries described by 
him, and he attempted to give a truthful account of his travels. 

In deference to the views of those scholars who see in every 
nursery tale and every history a myth of the rising sun, a fourth 
theory might be added : that the story of Fu-sang is a " sun- 
myth." This Procrustean theory is so all-embracing — applying 
with equal force to " Sing a Song of Sixpence " and the Iliad ; to 
the history of Jacob and the life of either of the Napoleons — 



342 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

that the various arguments used to adapt it to any tale what- 
ever might be applied (even with special force, as to some points) 
to the history of Fu-sang, " the Land of the Rising Sun." A 
sprinkling of Sanskrit, and a reference to the clouds surrounding 
the rising sun as " cows " or " herds," would make the argument 
complete. 

As it is reasonable to presume, however, that not more than 
nine tenths of early history is a variation upon the sun-myth 
theme, let us assume that the story of Fu-sang is among the 
few early tales that have some claim to other foundation. 

In such case it is but reasonable to ask that the story as a 
whole should lead to some otie of the three conclusions before 
mentioned. A portion of the story should not be accounted for 
by one hypothesis, and another of its statements by a different 
theory, wholly inconsistent with the first. It is not proper, for 
instance, to arrive at the conclusion that there was no such land 
as Fu-sang, and then in the next sentence attempt to prove that 
there was a land of Fu-sang, but that it was located in Japan. 

The author will attempt to show that the third theory is the 
true one. It is not necessary to remove every objection ; some 
difficulties will unquestionably remain unsolved. But the true 
point to be decided is as to which one of the possible theories 
offers the fewest and least serious perj^lexities. If it be shown 
that Hwui Shan describes a particular region in America, with 
its characteristic plants, and mentions peculiar customs of its 
people, such as are not known to have ever existed elsewhere ; 
if truth after truth is told, of a nature such as could never have 
been imagined if America had not actually been visited — a 
point will soon be reached when even explanations that would 
otherwise seem improbable may be accepted in regard to some 
few difficulties that present no other solution. 

If it requires infinitely more explanation to account for Hwui 
Shan's story upon either the first or second theory than it does 
upon the third, then the third may be considered as established 
with reasonable certainty. In the following pages an effort will 
be made to show that this is the case. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES," AND OP 

GREAT HAN. 

Necessity of examining the account in detail — The resemblance of the people of the 
two countries — Their customs — Their languages — The marks upon their bodies 
— Tattooing with three lines — Existence of the custom in America — The marks 
a sign of the position of their bearer — The merry nature of the people — Their 
feasts and dances — Their hospitality — Hospitality of the American Indians — 
The Iroquois — The Esquimaux — The Aleutians — Absence of fortifications — 
The chiefs— The decoration of their dwellings — The Haidah Indians — Other 
Indian tribes from British Columbia to Alaska — Esquimaux fondness for 
ornamentation — Ditches — The dwellings of the people — Water-silver — Proof 
that ice is meant — Quicksilver — No country ever had ditches filled with 
quicksilver — The traffic by means of precious gems — No money used — Value 
of amber — The peaceful nature of the people — The punishment of crime — 
Summary of facts mentioned by Hwui ShSn — Application of the doctrine of 
chances — The two countries bearing the name of Great Han. 

Maksden, in his edition of the " Travels of Marco Polo," "^ 
states that while much ingenuity has been shown, on the one 
side, in pointing out what seem to be improbabilities, defects, 
and inconsistencies in his work, and, on the other, in defend- 
ing it upon general principles, little has hitherto been done, by 
editors or commentators, toward an examination of the particu- 
lar details, with the view of bringing them to the test of mod- 
ern observation ; and yet it is upon the unexceptionable evi- 
dence of their consistency with known facts, rather than the 
strength of any argument, that the reader is expected to ground 
his confidence in the intentional veracity of the author. 

This criticism seems equally true in regard to the Chinese 
descriptions of eastern lands ; and this chapter will therefore be 
devoted to an examination of "the particular details" of the 
account of the Countries of Marked Bodies and Great Han, in 
order to show " their consistency with known facts." 



344 AN INGLORIOUS COLIJMBTJS. 

I. — The rudeness of the customs (of the people of the 
two countries) is the same, but their languages are dif- 
ferent. 

Latham says "'" that the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands, 
properly so called (i. e., of Behring's and Copper Islands), of the 
Rat Islands, of the Andreanowsky Islands, of the Prebtilowuni 
Islands, of XJnalaska, and of Kadiak, are all Esquimaux ; a fact 
which numerous vocabularies give us full means of ascertaining. 
In respect to the difference of speech between particular islands, 
there is external evidence that it is considerable. The people of 
Atka have a difficulty in understanding the Unalaskans, and 
vice versa. Again, the Kadiak vocabulary, as found in Lisiansky, 
differs very notably from the Unalaskan of the same author ; 
indeed, it may be doubted whether the two languages are mu- 
tually intelligible. 

Dall states that "** the language of th© western Innuit differs 
totally in the vocabulary from that of any Indian tribes, while 
there are many words common to the Greenlanders and the 
Behring's Strait Esquimaux. On the other hand, the words of the 
language of the Aleutians are in very large part quite dissimilar 
to those of the most adjacent Innuit. There is more difference 
in this respect between them and the Innuit of Kadiak than ex- 
ists between the Greenlandic and Behring's Strait dialect. Never- 
theless, the Aleutian language is clearly of the Innuit type, and 
is only entitled to rank as a branch of the Orarian stock. 

While Langsdorff repeats, almost verbatim, the words of 
Hwui Shan : "The inhabitants of Kadiak are but slightly dif- 
ferent from those of Unalaska. In general the people are some- 
what taller and more robust, but otherwise they are undeniably 
of the same race. The language is different. The customs, man- 
ners, methods of living, tneans of s^istenance, and the clothing, 
however, are almost exactly the same." ™^ 

II. — The people have marks upon their bodies like 

WILD BEASTS. 

It does not seem quite certain whether Hwui Shan meant 
that the marks were like those upon animals, or that they were 
pictures of wild beasts, or merely that the people resembled 
animals from the fact that their bodies were marked. 

If it is meant that the marks were representations of wild 
beasts, the Haidah Indians, of Queen Charlotte's Islands, who 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 345 

live not far from Alaska, and who may have moved from a still 
nearer neighbourhood during the last fourteen centuries, ex- 
actly meet the description. They seem to be intruders in their 
present location, as Swan states that there is a""^* marked differ- 
ence in their manners and customs from the Indians of the main- 
land. He adds that a singular ^^^^ custom which prevails among 
them, and which seems to be a distinctive feature of this tribe, is 
that of tattooing their bodies with various designs, all of which 
are fanciful representations of animals, birds, or fishes, either an 
attempt to represent in a grotesque form those which are known 
and commonly seen, or their mythological and legendary crea- 
tions ; he says also that "^^ each of the people will have on some 
part of the body a representation in tattooing of the particular 
figure which constitutes his or her family name or connection. 
The chief will have all the figures tattooed on his body to show 
his connection with the whole. 

If it is merely meant, however, that the people resembled 
wild beasts rather than men, because their bodies were marked 
or tattooed, it is not necessary to look farther than to the tribes 
now living in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. 

Bancroft says that,"* were these people (the Esquimaux) 
satisfied with what nature has done for them, they would be 
passably good-looking. But with them, as with all mankind, 
no matter how high the degree of intelligence and refinement 
attained, art must be applied to improve upon nature. The few 
finishing-touches neglected by the Creator, man is ever ready to 
supply. Arrived at the age of puberty, the great work of im- 
provement begins. Up to this time the skin has been kept satu- 
rated in grease and filth, until the natural colour is lost, and 
until the complexion is brought down to the Esquimaux standard. 
Now pigments of various dyes are applied, both painted out- 
wardly and pricked into the skin. 

John Ledyard, who visited Unalaska with Captain Cook, 
stated that, among the people whom they saw,'*'^ both sexes 
had undergone the usual face painting and ornamentation ; and 
Langsdorff mentions that'^** tattooing was very customary in 
former times in the Aleutian Islands, especially among the women. 
They punctured the chin, the neck, and the arms. 

III. — In front (ob upon theib fokeheads) they have 

THEEE MARKS. 



346 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Richardson says : "" " The women tattoo their faces in blue 
lines, produced by making stitches with a fine needle and thread 
smeared with lamp-black." Beechey reports that, between 
Kotzebue Sound and Icy Cape,'"^ " all the women were tattooed 
xipon the chin with three small Imesy Armstrong states that,"' 
at Point Barrow, the women have on the chin a vertical line 
about half an inch broad in the center, extending from the lip, 
with a parallel but narrower one on either side of it, a little 
apart. Choris assures us that,'°^ on Behring's Isle, men as well 
as women tattoo ; many men having the face tattooed. Coxa 
mentions that '"* the women of the Aleutian Islands were orna- 
mented with different figures sewed into the skin, and that '"" 
the faces of the women of the Fox Islands were marked with 
blackish streaks made with a needle and thread in the skin ; and 
Bancroft says that '°^ young Kadiak wives secure the affection- 
ate admiration of their husbands by tattooing the breast and 
adorning the face with black lines ; while the Kuskoquim women 
sew into their chin two parallel blue lines. 

This custom seems to have spread over a large portion of 
Northwestern America. 

Ross says that all the Esquimaux women met by him"" were 
tattooed to a greater or less extent, chiefly 07i the broto, and on 
each side of the mouth and chin ; this ornament consisting in 
lines alone, without any peculiar figures, and thus conforming 
to the usages of the Northwestern Esquimaux of America, as they 
have been described by different voyagers. 

Mackenzie, after mentioning that "" the Chepewyans have a 
tradition among them that they originally came from another 
country, inhabited by very wicked people, and had traversed a 
great lake which was narrow, shallow, and full of islands, where 
they had suffered great misery, it being always winter, with ice 
and deep snow, adds that ^"^ both sexes have blue or black bars 
of from one to four straight lines on their cheeks or forehead, 
to distinguish the tribe to which they belong. He also asserts 
that "" the men of both the Slave and Dog-rib tribes of Indians 
have two double lines, either black or blue, tattooed upon each 
cheek, from the ear to the nose, and that some of the Kniste- 
naux women ''" tatoo three perpendicular lines, which are some- 
times double, one from the center of the chin to that of the under 
lip, and one parallel on either side to the corner of the mouth. 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MAEKED BODIES." 347 

Powers remarks that the Karok''*'^^ squaws tattoo in blue three 
narrow fern-leaves perpendicularly on the chin, one falling from 
each corner of the mouth, and one in the middle, and that the 
Wintun'"^' squaws all tattoo three narrow lines, one falling 
from each corner of the mouth, and one between. 

IV. — If the maeks are large and straight, they indicate 

THAT those who HAVE THEM ARE OF THE HIGHER CLASSES ; 
BUT IF THEY ARE SMALL AND CROOKED, THEN THEIR POSSESSORS 
ARE OF THE LOWER CLASSES. 

Armstrong states that at Point Barrow some of the wom- 
gjjios «]jaye i-^Q vertical lines protruding from either angle 
of the mouth ; which is a mark of their high 2)osition in the 
trihey 

V. — The people of the land are of a merry nature, 

AND THEY REJOICE WHEN THEY HAVE AN ABUNDANCE, EVEN OF 
ARTICLES THAT ARE OF LITTLE VALUE. 

It is singular that nearly every traveler to Alaska and the 
Aleutian Islands has mentioned this peculiarity in the disposi- 
tion of the people, by which they are clearly distinguished from 
the taciturn and phlegmatic tribes occupying other portions of 
the American Continent. 

Bancroft states that"" the Aleuts are fond of dancing. 
Langsdorif asserts that'^^' the character of the people of the 
island of Unalaska is in general kind and good-natured, sub- 
missive, and obedient. Dall states "'* that originally the Aleu- 
tian tribes were active and sprightly, and that,"" like most 
of the Innuit tribes, they were fond of dances and festivals, 
which, like those of Norton Sound, were chiefly celebrated in 
December. Food was then plenty, and the otter-bunting 
season did not commence till a' little later."" Whole villages 
entertained other villages, receiving the guests with songs and 
tambourines. Successive dances of children, naked men beating 
their rude drums, and women curiously attired, were followed 
by incantations from the shamans. If a whale was cast ashore, 
the natives assembled with joyous and remarkable ceremonies. 
They advanced and beat drums of different sizes. The carcass 
was then cut up, and a feast held on the spot. 

This peculiarity seems to be shared by the Kamtchatkans, 
for it is stated of them that '"' they pass their time in singing 
and dancing, and in relating their intrigues, and the greatest 



318 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

misfortune that they can suffer is to be deprived of these 
amusements. 

VI. — Tbaveling visitors do not prepare food for their 

JOURNEYS, AND THEY HAVE THE SHELTER OP THEIR (tHE IN- 
HABITANTS') DWELLINGS. 

By referring to the seventeenth chapter, it will be seen that 
some of the former translators of this passage have thought that 
reference was made to " a fertile land, where all that is neces- 
sary to sustain life may be found in abundance"; to a country 
where "the various products are abundant and cheap," and 
where " the travelers who pass through it have no need to fur- 
nish themselves with provisions." The Marquis d'Hervey de 
Saint-Denys renders the first clause of the paragraph above 
quoted, "The traveler easily finds food "; and in another place 
translates the same clause, " The traveler has no need to carry 
food with him (the country furnishing it to him in abundance)." 

The version of this passage by Professor Williams will be 
seen, however, to agree in its main features with that given by 
the present author. 

The statement of the Chinese account is, that "traveling 
visitors do not prepare food for their journeys"; and the in- 
ference of former translators, that the reason is that " the coun- 
try furnishes it in abundance," is merely an inference, and hap- 
pens to be erroneous. 

The true reason is, that the people, although poor, are so hos- 
pitable that they supply travelers freely with all that they them- 
selves have. This complete hospitality, which is carried to such 
a point that it is considered to be a right of the traveler to share 
freely of all that may be found in the dwellings that he enters, 
and that there is no thought on either side that it is an act of 
mere courtesy, is characteristic of the aborigines of the Ameri- 
can Continent ; as it existed throughout all of North America, 
at least, and was probably found in South America also ; while 
it is doubtful whether the same universal and complete hospi- 
tality has existed anywhere else in the world. 

So accustomed were all or nearly all of the tribes of America 
to this hearty welcome in every house that they entered, that 
Mr. Stephen Badger, in a letter to the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society, published in 1798, complains that "* the Indians 
are strangely disposed and addicted to wander from place to 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MAEKED BODIES." 349 

place, and to make excursions into various parts of the country, 
and sometimes at no small distance from their proper homes, 
without anything on hand for theii' support in their perambula- 
tions, as for this they depend, with unanxious concern, upon the 
charity and compassion of others. 

Morgan says that"^^ one of the most attractive features of In- 
dian society was the spirit of hospitality by which it was per- 
vaded. Perhaps no people ever carried this principle to the 
same degree of universality as did the Iroquois. Their houses 
were not only open to each other, at all hours of the day and of 
the night, but also to the wayfarer and the stranger. Such 
entertainment as their means afforded was freely spread before 
him, with words of kindness and of welcome. He states again 
that,"" among the Iroquois, hospitality was an established 
usage. If a man entered an Indian house in any of their vil- 
lages, whether a villager, a tribesman, or a stranger, it was the 
duty of the women therein to set food before him. An omis- 
sion to do this would have been a discourtesy amounting to an 
affront. If hungry, he ate ; if not hungry, courtesy required 
that he should taste the food and thank the giver. This would 
be repeated at every house he entered, and at whatever hour in 
the day. As a custom it was upheld by a rigorous public senti- 
ment. The same hospitality was extended to strangers from 
their own and from other tribes. Upon the advent of the Euro- 
pean race among them it was also extended to them. Quotations 
follow from " Smith's History of Virginia," from the Rev. John 
Heckewelder, from Lewis and Clarke, and from many others, to 
show that this hospitality is universal among the Indian tribes. 

In another place "^' Morgan gives the following anecdote in 
illustration of the difference between the hospitality of the In- 
dians and that of the whites : 

Canassatego, a distinguished Onondaga chief, who flourished 
about the middle of the last century, said, in a conversation with 
Conrad Weiser, an Indian interpreter : " You know our prac- 
tice. If a white man, in traveling through our country, enters 
one of our cabins, we all treat him as I do you. We dry him if 
he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, and give him meat and 
drink that he may allay his hunger and thirst ; and we spread 
soft furs for him to rest and sleep on. "We demand nothing in 
return. But if I go into a white man's house at Albany, and ask 



360 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

for victuals and drink, they say, ' Where is your money ? ' And 
if I have none, they say, ' Get out, you Indian dog I ' " 

Mackenzie speaks particularly "" of the generosity and hos- 
pitality of the Knistenaux ; and Ross "^^^^ mentions several in- 
stances *'" in which he had " ample jsroof of the hospitality " ^'^' 
of the Esquimaux whom he met. 

To return to Alaska and the Aleutian Islands : Dall mentions 
a case of great kind-heartedness shown to him by two of the 
natives of Alaska."'^ He says again of the Aleutians that"'' hos- 
pitality was one of their prominent traits. 

Quoting from Veniaminoff, he says ''" that it is the custom of 
the Aleutians for the successful hunter or fisher, particularly in 
times of scarcity, to share his prize with all, not only taking no 
large share, but often less than the others ; and if he has forgotten 
any one at the distribution, or any one arrives too late, he shares 
the remainder with him. All those in need of assistance hasten 
to meet the returning hunter at the landing, and sit down silently 
by the shore. This is a sign that they ask for aid ; only the 
infirm or orphans send persons to represent them : and the hunt- 
er divides his prize, without expecting thanks or restitution. 
Continuing his quotations from the same authority, he adds : "" 
" The Aleuts are not inhospitable, but they practice hospital- 
ity in their own way. They meet all strangers at the landing- 
place, though rarely saluting them by word or sign, except 
where they have learned the custom, daily becoming more uni- 
versal, from the Russians. If the stranger has a relative or inti- 
mate friend, he goes to him ; if not, no one will invite him, but 
all are ready to receive him : he can choose his quarters himself. 
Then he is entertained in the best manner ; the woman of the 
house takes care of his clothing, mending his kamlayka, or what- 
ever stands in need of repair ; but she is not obliged to receive 
him, as was formerly customary. They never think of asking 
their guest for anything, but let him stay as long as he may ; 
they even provide him loithfood of every hind when he departs^ 
The duplication by Yeniaminoff, in the clause in italics, of the 
statement given in the Chinese account, should be particularly 
observed. 

Bancroft says that '"' the Aleuts are given to hospitality ; and 
Coxe mentions that '"* when the natives of the Fox Islands are 
on a journey, and their provisions are exhausted, they beg from 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 351 

village to village, or call upon their friends and relations for 

assistance. 

VII —They have no fortifications or walled cities. 

This is so well known to be true of the Aleutians and Alas- 
kans that no quotations upon the subject will be necessary. 

VIII -The residence or the king (or kings) of the 

COUNTRY IS adorned WITH GOLD AND SILVER AND PRECIOUS 
AND BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS ABOUT THE DWELLING. _ 

First, as to the ruler, Bancroft states that,"« m the Aleu- 
tian Islands, every island, and, in the larger islands, every village, 
has its toyon,* or chief, who decides differences, is exempt from 
work, and is allowed a servant to row his boat, but in other re- 
spects possesses no power. ^ i -.wi.o Alon 

The houses of the chiefs are not now decorated m the Aleu- 
tian Islands as described in the account, but some remnants of 
such decoration still exist in Alaska, and, by going a ittle way 
down the American coast, we find, among the Haidah Indians 
(who, as has already been stated, seem to be intruders in their 
present position, and who may have migrated from .he Aleu- 
tian Islands or their neighbourhood durmg the 1^^ fourteen 
hundred years), carvings and decorations which recall the de- 

'°' As U EmltZX a little farther on in the account, that in 
their barters, precious gems are used (as the standard of value, 
n stead of gl and silver), it is evident that at the time when 
the residence of the chief was adorned with gold and silver, 
these metals were used merely as ornaments.^ After the.r value 
as the medium of exchange with foreign nations ^^^ l^^™;^'^ 
is not likely that the outside of any dwelling ^ould long be 
covered with them, and they would, therefore, soon be replaced 
Avith other decorations. 

Swan, in his account of the Haidah Indians, gives an engrav- 
inc whick he says - is intended to represent one of the carved 
polts or pillars which are raised in front of the houses of the 
chiefs or principal men. These pillars are sometimes from fifty 
to sixty feet hfgh, elaborately carved, at a cost of hundreds of 

*This word, which is found with the same meaning, and with but slight 
changl in sou;d, throughout Eastern Asia, and in the Aleutian I^an s and 
S , is a proo of an%arly communication between the two contments.-E. 



352 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

blankets ; some of tlie best ones even costing several thousand 
dollars : consequently, only the most xmalthy individuals of the 
tribe are able to purchase the best specimens. These pillars are 
carved out of a single cedar-tree, the back hollowed so as to re- 
lieve the weight when raising it in a perpendicular position. 
They are deeply and firmly set in the earth, directly in front of 
the lodge, and a circular opening near the ground constitutes the 
door of entrance to the house. The Chimsean Indians, at Fort 
Simpson, and the Sitka tribes, have this style of carved posts, 
but they set them at a short distance from the front of their 
houses. The figures carved on these posts are the family totems, 
or heraldic designs of the family occupying the house ; and as 
these Indians build large wooden lodges, capable of containing 
several families, the carvings may be said to indicate the family 
names of the different occupants. The chief or head man owns 
the house, and the occupants are his family and relatives. 

Dall mentions similar "^- high posts, curiously carved, as being 
frequently erected before the houses of the Thlinkeets, and says 
that they are sometimes placed directly in front, so that an en- 
trance is made through the block or log, which is often of enor- 
mous size. 

The Niskah or Naas Indians, of British Columbia, have elabo- 
rately carved poles in front of many of their houses. Some of 
the houses have their fronts built in the form of an animal's 
head. The front of one of their houses is described as shaped 
like a wolf's head, the nose being the porch, and the mouth the 
door."" A chief's rank is marked by the height of the pole 
erected in front of his house (on which the crest which distin- 
guishes his division of the tribe is carved) ; and no offense leads 
to more frequent quarrels than the attempt on the part of a 
chief to put u]) a pole higher than his rank warrants. "^^ 

Fondness for ornamentation is shown by both the Alaskans 
and Aleuts, their boats being frequently "" inlaid very prettily 
with lozenge-shaped pieces of gypsum. 

The same love for such ornamentation, which led to the deco- 
ration of their houses, is still shown in many smaller matters. 
Langsdorff says that '^" the Aleutian, who but seldom has an op- 
portunity of obtaining a piece of good wood a few inches in diam- 
eter, when he obtains a suitable piece, occupies himself for weeks 
together in shaping it into a board so made that, when it has 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 353 

been soaked in water for some little time, it can be bent evenly 
and uniformly. He then attempts to gradually bring together 
the two corners of the little board, which he has previously 
given the form of a semi-oval, and sew them together with sinew- 
thread, by which means a pyramidical cap is made. If he is 
successful in' this work, which is not always the case, for the 
board often either breaks or bends unevenly, he paints it with 
coloured earth and ocher, brought from the far distant crater of 
the volcano, and adorns it with figures labouriously carved from 
walrus-tusks, without any tools worthy of the name. He also 
decorates it with glass or amber beads, obtained from the Rus- 
sians, and with the bristles from the muzzle of the sea-lion, which 
to a certain extent take the place of the ornamental plumes used 
by Europeans ; the Aleutians placing a high value upon a bunch 
of these bristles — which are the trophies of a successful hunter 
— as each sea-lion has but four. 

IX. — They mak k a ditch of a breadth of O'se eod (of 
ten Chinese feet, or nearly twelve English feet), which is filled 

WITH WATEK-SILVEE. WhEN IT KAIXS, THEN THE BAIN FLOWS 
UPON THE SURFACE OF THE WATER-SILVER. 

As the Chinese seldom punctuate their writings, it is uncer- 
tain whether the clause " about the dwelling," which in the 
present translation was used as the closing member of the pre- 
ceding phrase, may not really be the opening clause of the pres- 
ent sentence ; in which case the ditch above mentioned should 
be considered as surrounding the house or houses, either of the 
ruler or of the people. 

Coxe says that the inhabitants of some of the Aleutian Isl- 
ands "'■ live in holes dug in the earth, but elsewhere '-" explains 
his meaning more clearly by saying that their "^' dwellings are 
hollowed in the ground, and covered with wooden roofs, resem- 
bling the huts in the peninsula of Kamtchatka. These are de- 
scribed as '*" surrounded by a wall of earth, or by a palisade. 
Langsdorff states that ^^^ the dwellings of the Unalaskans consist 
of pits, which are covered with a roof of earth thrown over them, 
upon which, after they have stood for a few years, high grass 
grows, so that a village then resembles a European church-yard 
with high grave-mounds. He adds that,''"' although the dwell- 
ings of the inhabitants of Kadiak are in most respects like those 
of the Unalaskans, they differ somewhat, from the fact that more 
23 



354 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

wood is used in their construction. These houses, half-buried 
in the earth, although without stoves, are warm enough in the 
winter to protect their inhabitants from the cold. 

It is evident from these quotations that the earth, excavated 
within the walls of the dwelling, is thrown up about them out- 
side and upon the roof. Those who have had occasion to erect 
tents know that one of the most essential precautions to secure 
comfort is to dig a small trench about them, to carry away any 
rain that may fall ; and in a country so intolerably "^"^ rainy as 
is Alaska,"** it would seem as if a ditch about the houses were 
an absolute necessity. Hayden describes the cabins or huts of 
the Arikaras ^^^'^ in very much the same language as that used 
above in picturing the dwellings of the Alaskans, and adds : 
" Around the house, on the outside, a small trench is dug, to carry 
away the rain." No such ditches are described as existing in 
Alaska, however, although Petroff states that '"^*" storms and tides 
often inundate the swampy shore on which their partly sub- 
terranean dwellings are built, and, filling them with water, drive 
the inmates out ; while Dall also concurs in the statement that "" 
their underground houses are, in summer, full of water. 

It is not certain, however, that Hwui Shan meant to say that 
the ditch or ditches surrounded the houses. All that can be de- 
rived with certainty from his words is, that somewhere in the 
country he saw one or more ditches filled with a substance suf- 
ficiently remarkable to be, in his opinion, Avorthy of mention. 

He describes this substance as " water-silver." Now, although 
this term usually means quicksilver "'" (and it has therefore been 
so translated by all others), yet here it seems to be impossible 
that it can have been used otherwise than as a descriptive phrase 
for ice. We, who see every year the wonderful transformation 
of water into a solid crystalline substance, easily forget the sur- 
prising nature of the change to one who has not been accustomed 
to it. The king of Siam could believe all the marvelous tales 
of foreign lands that were told to him, until this transformation 
was mentioned. Then his credulity was taxed too far, and he 
announced his disbelief, and the reasons for it. *' Water," said 
]jg^io38 u jg 3^ fluid, and a fluid is not a compact body ; therefore, 
water can never appear in a compact form, and all the fables 
about ice, snow, and hail are unworthy of credit." 

Now, although ice is occasionally formed in Northern China, 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 355 

the temperature is seldom low enough '^"^ to form it at Canton ; 
and, as it is seen throughout the most of China and other coun- 
tries of Southern Asia, it is merely a thin and easily melted cake, 
diflFering widely from the glittering and immensely thick mass 
which is formed in the ditches in the Aleutian Islands. It is 
therefore not surprising that Hwui Shan should have spoken of 
the great thickness of ice seen in this country. The character 
CHI,* in the phrase, may possibly be used, not in its most common 
sense, as a mere particle indicating the relations to each other of 
the words between which it is placed, but in its original sense 
as a verb, meaning"'^ "to proceed, to go to,"'^°^ "to proceed 
to," or, as Professor Williams defines it, "to pass from one 
state to another," and it seems not impossible that Hwui Shan 
may have meant that the rain passed from the state of a fluid 
into that of the " water-silver." The passage is very obscure, 
and many educated Chinamen have confessed that they were 
unable to decide with certainty as to its meaning. 

Had it been the intention to say that the ditches were filled 
with quicksilver, there is"^^ a character '^®® (^, hung) meaning 
quicksilver, which could have been used instead of the compound 
" water-silver." This would have placed the meaning beyond 
question, and the nature of the Chinese language is such that 
it will hardly permit two characters to be used when one would 
fully express the meaning. 

It is possible that the original term may have been "icy- 
silver," as yj^, PixG, tce,^"' differs by only one dot from yjc, shut, 
water. It seems more likely, however, that Hwui Shan wished to 
distinguish between this hard, solid, transparent ice of the Arctic 
regions, and the thin crusts, scarcely deserving the name, which 
were all that could be seen in China ; and, in order to do so, he 
used a compound analogous to a number of others existing in 
Chinese. Quartz crystal is, for instance, called^"* shui-tsing, 
" water - crystal," or*"^ shui-ytjh, "water-gem." This last 
term was also applied to glass,^"^^ " because it is clear as water 
and hard as a gem," when that substance was first introduced in 
China a few centuries ago. "Water-silver" is as appropriate 
and natural a term for ice as the other compounds above named 
are for the substances to which they are applied. 

It should be again insisted that Hwui Shan is fairly entitled 

* See chap, xvii, character No. 706. 



356 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

to that translation of his account \vhich will make his story con- 
form with the truth, provided that such a translation is possible. 
If he were relying xipon his imagination, innumerable statements 
would be made which no possible ingenuity could harmonize 
with the truth. If " water-silver " is translated " ice," all diffi- 
culties vanish, and his account becomes simple and truthful. If 
it is translated " quicksilver," we become involved in manifest 
absurdities, as, for instance : " When the ditch is filled with quick- 
silver, and the rain is allowed to flow off from the quicksilver, 
the water is then regarded in the markets as a precious rarity." 
This should not be understood as an imputation upon the schol- 
arship of the late Professor Williams, the depth of whose learn- 
ing, and whose thorough acquaintance with the Chinese language 
are too well known to need mention, llis translation is quoted 
merely as showing the utter absurdity of the whole passage if 
" water-silver " is translated by its usual equivalent of " quick- 
silver." There never was a country in which there was a ditch 
filled with quicksilver. If such a country had ever existed, rain- 
water flowing upon it, and then flowing off from it, would not 
be in any way affected by it ; and if the water were affected by 
it, it could not be considered in the markets as a precious rarity, 
as an unlimited amount of water could have been permitted to 
flow over it. Can it be believed that any sane man would ever 
have told so absurd a story ? 

X. — In their traffic they use precious gems (or valu- 
ables — as the standard of value — instead of gold or silver). 

As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, Langs- 
dorff stated that ™^ no money was current in the country. Veni- 
aminoff "^^ describes the custom of bartering existing among the 
Aleuts, and says that " it is of great age, and has been preserved 
without change." Dall mentions ''^' amethysts, zeolites, tourma- 
lines, garnets, spinel, agates, carnelians, variegated marble, hy- 
pochlorite (commonly used for ornaments by the natives, resem- 
bling jade, and sometimes called malachite), and fossil ivory, as 
existing in Alaska. 

Langsdorff says that""* a species of mussel-shell, the sea- 
tooth {Dentaliwn entails), which is called tache, or heikwa, is 
very highly prized by the Aleutians, and even now is in great 
request. Bancroft states that '"^ at times amber is thrown up in 
large quantities by the ocean on the south side of Kadiak, gen- 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 357 

erally after a heavy earthquake, and that at such times it forms 
an important article of commerce with the natives. Dall ''^^ also 
speaks of their fondness for amber, and states that among '"^ the 
relics forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution from the Aleu- 
tian Islands, was one rude amber bead, evidently of native make, 
on a sinew thread. The amber was obtained from the lignite 
beds, which are reported on the islands of Amchitka, Atka, and 
Unalaska, and may exist elsewhere. We know that amber was 
held in great esteem by the early natives, and extraordinary 
value set upon it. This bead, therefore, may have represented 
in value a good many sea-otter skins. 

Amber is among the articles included by the Chinese under 
the general term " gems," and its value in China was formerly 
very great."^ 

XL — Thet (the people of Great Ilan) have no military 

WEAPONS, AND DO NOT WAGE WAR. 

This well characterizes the peaceful Esquimaux, and is a 
statement that it would be impossible to make with truth regard- 
ing any of the tribes of Northeastern Asia. 

XII. — He who has committed a petty crime is scourged. 
He who is accused of a crime deserving death is thrown 
to wild beasts to be devoured. If the accusation is ca- 
lumnious, THE beasts keep AT A DISTANCE FROM IIIM, IT IS SAID 

(instead of devouring him) ; then, after a night (of trial), he 

IS SET AT LIBERTY. 

This statement was copied by the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint- 
Denys from the Chinese "History of the South." Ma Twan- 
lin, for some reason, did not think it best to include it in his 
account. The white bears and other large wild beasts, which 
once existed in the Aleutian Islands, have long been extinct. 
No trace of the custom above referred to can therefore now be 
found in those islands, and the most that could be expected to 
have survived to the present day would be some dim trace, to 
be found among the nearly allied tribes of Kamtchatka or 
Alaska. 

The author fancies that he has seen an account of the aban- 
donment to wild beasts, by the Alaskans, of some alleged witch- 
es ; but if so, he is unable to find it again. Possibly the night 
of trial through which their medicine-men pass before assuming 
the office, when, alone in the forest or plains, they wait for their 



358 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

guardian spirit to appear to them in the guise of some wild ani- 
mal, may be a trace of the ancient custom. 

Something of the kind may still exist in Kamtchatka, as it 
is stated that those who have committed a theft '"' are released, 
for the first offense, by returning what they have taken, and by 
living isolated from dealings with their countrymen, without 
being able to expect any help from them. 

If it be considered that any difficulties in the foregoing ac- 
count are not satisfactorily explained, let it be asked again, 
Which one of the possible theories upon the subject is accom- 
panied by the fewest and least serious difficulties ? 

Is it possible that Hwui Shan could have told the following 
truths, except as the result of an actual visit to America by way 
of the Aleutian Islands ? 

1. Land was to be found in the Pacific Ocean, some twenty- 
three hundred miles northeasterly from Japan. 

2. Some sixteen hundred miles farther east, land was again 
to be found, 

3. The journey could be continued easterly, for some six 
thousand miles at least, and land would still be found. 

4. The second of the countries mentioned by him was known 
as a "great" land ; and it not only lay east of the first coun- 
try, but was so extensive that it also lay to the east of China. 

5. The people of the first two countries were alike in their 
customs, but their languages were different. 

6. The people of the first of the countries tattooed their 
bodies. 

7. They had the custom of tattooing some portion of the 
face with three lines. 

8. These lines indicated the position of their owner in the 
tribe. 

9. The people were of so merry and joyous a nature that the 
fact was worthy of notice. 

10. They were so hospitable as to furnish their visitors, not 
only with shelter, but also with food for their journeys. 

11. They had no fortifications or walled cities. 

12. They had no military weapons and did not wage war. 

13. The dwellings of their chief men were curiously adorned, 
externally. 

14. The ditches in their land were filled with some singular 



CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF "MARKED BODIES." 359 

substance to which the term " water-silver " could be applied, 
and this substance was in some way connected with the rain. 

15. Gold and silver were not used as the standards of value, 
but their place was filled by "gems." 

If it be assumed that there is just one chance out of two 
that each one of these statements would be true as to any newly 
discovered land, then the probability that they would all be true 
is as one to the fifteenth power of two, or one to over thirty-two 
thousand, a proportion which makes it practically impossible 
that the story can have been imaginary. It will readily be ad- 
mitted that there is no more than one chance out of two that any 
one of the fifteen statements above referred to would be true of 
an unknown region, and it is evident that of some of them the 
chance is not one in a dozen. The probability that such a story, 
if invented by one who knew nothing of the region, would prove, 
upon exploration, to be true, instead of being one in thirty-two 
thousand, is really, therefore, but one in millions, and it is easier 
to accept almost any difficulty, as to one or two of the points, 
than to believe that the account was imaginary, or that it related 
to any other country. 

D'Hervey (see Chapter XII) has clearly explained the difficulty 
into which earlier writers had been led by confounding the two 
regions called Ta Han, or Great Han — one to the north of China 
(and hence on the Asiatic Continent), and the other to the east 
or northeast (and hence on the American Continent). This con- 
fusion between the two countries, which caused de Guignes and 
other writers to look upon the Asiatic Continent for Hwui Shan's 
Great Han country, has been the chief cause of the desperate 
attempts to locate Fu-sang, also, somewhere else than in America. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE COUNTRY LYING IN THE REGION INDICATED BY HWUI SHAN. 

The direction from China, Japan, and Great Han in which Fu-sang lay — The 
trend of the American Pacific coast — The distortion of the common maps — 
Mexico lies in the region indicated — The nations inhabiting Mexico in the 
fifth century — Their language — Traces of their beliefs and customs existing 
one thousand years later — Aztec traditions — The Toltecs — Their character — 
Their civilization — The time of their dispersion — Their language — The Pacific 
coast — The evidence of place-names — The Aztec language — Limits of the 
Mexican empire — The name of the country — The city of Tenochtitlan — The 
application of the name " Mexico " — First applied to the country — Early 
maps — Late application of the name to the city — Pronunciation of the word 
— Similar names throughout the country — Meaning of the syllable " co " — 
Varying explanations — Real meaning of the term — " The Place of the Centu- 
ry-plant " — Meaning of the syllable " me " — Meaning of the syllable " xi " — 
Its meaning in other compounds — Other abbreviations — Appropriateness of 
the designation — The god Mexitli — Proof that he was the god of the century- 
plant — Reason that the Spaniards were misled as to the meaning of " Mexico." 

Having, in the preceding chapters, arrived at the conclusion 
that the country referred to by Hwui Shan under the name of 
" Great Han " was located in the region now known as Alaska, 
let us continue the examination of his story, and endeavour to 
identify the land which he calls the country of Fu-sang. 

His first reference to it is as follows : 

I. — Fu-sang is situated twice ten thousand li or more 

TO THE EAST OF THE GrEAT HaN COUNTRY. ThAT LAND IS ALSO 
situated TO THE EAST OP THE MiDDLE KiNGDOM (China). 

Attention should first be called to a fact, already noticed, that, 
as the greater part of the route from Japan to the Great Han 
country bears in a northeasterly direction, the route from the 
land of Great Han to a country lying to the east of China can 
not be directly east, but must lie somewhat southerly. 

Probably but few realize how the western coast of America 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHAK 361 

trends toward the east. We are so accustomed to consider the 
top of our maps as the north, and the bottom as the south, and to 
think, half unconsciously, that a perpendicular line upon the map 
represents a true north and south line, that, when we see the 
usual maps of North America drawn upon the customary projec- 
tion, in which, in order to represent the rounding surface of the 
earth upon a plane surface with as little distortion as possible, 
the westerly meridians are drawn sloping from near the center of 
the upper margin of the map toward the lower left-hand corner, 
we forget that these sloping lines are the true meridians, and 
learn to consider the western coast of America as bearing almost 
north and south. If Hwui Shan had said that the land six thou- 
sand miles beyond Alaska lay to the south of that country, prob- 
ably no one would have thought of objecting that it lay also to 
the east ; and yet it is quite as true to say that Mexico lies to the 
east of Alaska as it is to say that it lies to the south. A map of 
the northern half of the hemisphere including the North Pa- 
cific Ocean, drawn upon the customary projection, in which 
the meridians passing through the western coast of America 
are placed upon the right side of the map, instead of on the 
left, as we are accustomed to see them, will help to fix the 
true direction of the coast in the mind, and will also show how 
natural it would have been for Hwui Shan to consider his jour- 
ney beyond Alaska as a continuation of the same general course 
which he had been pursuing, and not as an abrupt turn at right 
angles from the east to the south. (See Frontispiece.) It is 
difficult for us to realize that San Francisco lies farther east of 
the westernmost of the Aleutian Islands than Portland, Maine, 
lies east of San Francisco, and that, in going from California to 
Panama, the route trends so much toward the east that its termi- 
nus is found to be upon nearly the same meridian as "Washington. 

If a voyage of some six thousand miles (making a due allow- 
ance for the sinuosity of the coast, and for a slight but natural 
exaggeration by a traveler who had no means of measuring the 
distance accurately) were made from Alaska, in an easterly di- 
rection, but trending toward the south, so that at the end of the 
journey the destination would lie easterly from China, where 
would the traveler find himself ? 

A few moments' study of a map will answer the question 
clearly and unmistakably : on the coast of Jfexico. 



362 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

If a traveler had made this journey in the latter part of the 
fifth century, a. d., what tribe of people would he have found 
upon the Pacific coast of Mexico, what language was then 
spoken there, what were the manners and customs of the people, 
what was their state of civilization, and by what name Avas the 
country then known ? 

Here, unfortunately, except for the account given by Ilwui 
Shan himself, we are compelled to rely upon tradition, supple- 
mented only by a few scanty hieroglyphical records, and by 
vague recollections of more complete accounts which once exist- 
ed ; upon the ruins scattered about the country, and upon cus- 
toms and arts, which had evidently come down from distant 
generations, which were found to exist in the land at the time 
of the Spanish conquest. It is surprising, however, to find how 
much of the history of Mexico at the time spoken of may, on 
close and careful study, be vaguely discerned through the mists 
of the intervening centuries. 

M. Lenoir very justly observes that ^"' there necessarily ex- 
isted a great afiinity between the customs, arts, and beliefs of the 
Mexicans, at the time of their conquest by the Europeans, and 
those which existed, when the population of Guatemala flour- 
ished, and Palenque and Mitla were founded. We may, there- 
fore, by first examining the religion, the customs, the arts, and 
even the literature, of the Mexicans during the reign of Monte- 
zuma, hope to obtain some knowledge of these earlier tribes, 
even though the Mexicans seem to have — ^to a great extent — 
forgotten them, and to have been ignorant in regard to the 
state of civilization which had been reached by the nations who 
were the founders of their arts and sciences. 

There is no question that several races of conquerors suc- 
ceeded one another in the Mexican empire, and that they had suc- 
cessively adopted the religion and the customs of the vanquished 
people ; and it may be again repeated that it is indisputable that 
some traces of the primitive religion and customs must have sur- 
vived, and that a mixture of the old and the new religion must 
have occurred, as was the case in the history of Christianity 
when it overcame paganism. 

According to the traditions of the Aztecs, they migrated 
during the eleventh '*"' or twelfth *"° century to the region where 
they dwelt at the time of the conquest. When they reached 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY IIWUI SHAN. 363 

this country '^''^ they, according to Humboldt, found the pyramidal 
monuments of Tedtihuacan, of Cholula, or Cholollan, and of Pa- 
pantla. They attributed these immense works to the Toltecs, a 
powerful and civilized nation which had lived in Mexico for five 
hundred years ; they used hieroglyphic writing, and knew the 
length of the year more exactly than the greater part of the 
nations of the Old World. The Aztecs did not certainly know 
whether other tribes had lived in the country of Anahuac before 
the Toltecs. In regarding the " Houses of God " of Teotihuacan 
and Cholollan as the work of this last nation, they assigned to 
them the greatest antiquity of which they had any knowledge. 
It is possible, nevertheless, that they were constructed before the 
invasion of the Toltecs— an event which, according to some 
writers, occurred in the year 648 of our era. 

Humboldt also states, in another place, "^°^ that the Toltecs 
preceded the Aztecs, in the country of Anahuac, by more than 
five centuries, and differed from them by that love for the arts, 
and that religious and peaceful character, which distinguished the 
Etruscans from the first inhabitants of Rome. 

M. Lenoir says that "" the Toltecs, who inhabited this part 
of America toward the seventh century, and who, according to 
tradition, had a mild and gentle religion, and offered only flowers 
and fruits to their gods, were displaced successively by the 
Chichimecs and the Aztecs, whose ferocious and sanguinary relig- 
ion was practiced by the nation over whom Montezuma ruled 
at the time of the Spanish conquest. According to the Mexican 
tradition, the Toltecs who inhabited the land of Anahuac were 
far advanced in the arts and sciences. After their migration to 
the Bay of Campeche and Honduras, their country was occu- 
pied by the Chichimecs, a warlike and ferocious nation, but one 
whose people profited by the presence of some Toltecs who still 
remained in their old home, and acquired, from them, a knowl- 
edge of agriculture and the arts. 

Bancroft also refers to " the old-time story, how the Tol- 
tecs in the sixth century appeared on the Mexican table-land ; 
how they were driven out and scattered in the seventh century ; 
how, after a brief interval, the Chichimecs followed their foot- 
steps ; and how these last were succeeded by the Aztecs, who were 
found in possession." 

The preceding quotations fix the date of the arrival of the 



364 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Toltecs in the land of Mexico as in the sixth or seventh century. 
The traditions are too vague and unreliable, however, and the 
scanty paintings which confirm them too brief and uncertain as to 
their precise meaning, to permit the exact century to be deter- 
mined with accuracy. No writer fixes the date later than the 
sixth or seventh century, but many set it much earlier. 

The Mexican historian, the Abbe Domenech,^'* places the 
Toltecs' arrival in New Spain about the third century before the 
Christian era. 

The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg says that*^^ the uncer- 
tainty regarding the origin of the Toltec race prevents the fix- 
ing, with any surety, of the epoch when they appeared upon the 
shores of Mexico ; everything leads to the belief, however, that 
it was during the century before the Christian era, or in the 
first century after Christ. A date mentioned by him, of which 
he does not undertake to guarantee the authenticity, appears to 
fix the time of the arrival of the tribes speaking the Nahuatl 
language as in the year 279 b. c. 

According to Bancroft,*" the date of the arrival of the Tol- 
tecs in Huehue Tlapallan is given by Ixtlilxochitl, in his first 
Toltec Relation (p. 322), as 2,236 years after the creation, or 520 
years after the flood. That is, it occurred long before the 
Christian era. In other places (pp. 206 and 459) the same author 
represents the Toltecs as banished from their country, and mi- 
grating to Huetlapan, in California, on the South Sea, in 387 a, d. ; 
and this last-named date is repeated by Gallatin (in Schoolcraft's 
"Arch.," vol. V, p. 96) and Mtiller ("Reisen," tome iii, p. 97). 

As, according to Gallatin,""^ we may safely conclude that, 
within a few years after the conquest, there did not exist a 
single historical painting in which events prior to the fifteenth 
century were faithfully recorded imder their proper date, it is 
impossible to arrive at any positive conclusion as to the exact 
time when the Toltec empire was founded ; but we can rely 
with much confidence on the general conclusion, stated by Ban- 
croft, that "^ as the Nahua nations were living when the Span- 
iards found them, so had they probably been living for at least 
ten centuries, and not improbably for a much longer period. 

We are, therefore, carried back to about the days of Hwui 
Shan, and have reason to believe that if he had made the jour- 
ney to Mexico he would have found there either the Toltecs, 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHIN. 365 

or some nation speaking substantially the same language, and 
having many of the arts and customs which were possessed by 
the Toltecs of later days. 

The quotations already given show that"' the Aztecs derived 
their system of hieroglyphics from the Toltecs, and that the 
civilization of the latter was far superior to that of their suc- 
cessors. According to tradition, it was ''' during the Toltec 
period of Nahua culture that husbandry and all the arts pertain- 
ing to the production and preparation of food were brought to 
the highest degree of perfection, and similar traditions exist-as 
to all other arts known to the Mexicans at the time of the con- 
quest. 

The indications which we have, all agree ^^'» that the ancient 
Toltecs and the seven tribes of Nahuatlacas, or Kahuas, had the 
same origin, and spoke the same language, which was the Mexi- 
can, Nahuatl, or Aztec. Buschmann says : ''' " That the Aztecs 
were of a common origin with the Toltecs, Acolhuas, and other 
inhabitants of Mexico, is shown by the language common to all 
and still known as the Aztec, although the people are prefer- 
ably and more usually called Mexicans." 

Similar statements are made*" by Bancroft,^'' McCulloh,'*« 
Bandelier,^^' and all other authorities that have referred to the 

subject. .. I.- ■« t. 

It might be thought, however, that the quotations which have 
been given refer onfy to the region in thfe neighbourhood of the 
city of ]V[exico, and that a different state of affairs may have 
existed upon the shore of the Pacific. It is found, however, that 
the Toltecs colonized that coast, and that the Aztec language 
was spoken upon nearly the whole of the western border of the 

country of Mexico. , 

Ixtlilxochitl,- in Kingsborough (vol. ix, p. 214), mentions a 
Toltec party that emigrated to the Michoacan region, and dwelt 
there for a long time. Sahagun (tome iii, let. x, pp. Uo-146) refers 
to a Toltec migration as an issue from the same region. Veytia 
(tome ii, pp. 39-40) speaks of Toltecs who founded coonies all 
along the Pacific coast, and gradually changed their language 
and customs. Gallatin - says that Copan was a colony of Tol- 
tecs ; and the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg says that the PipUes 
a tribe speaking the Mexican language, occupied a portion of 
Guatemala «« before the great emigration of the Toltecs m the 



366 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

eleventh century ; and he also states that/®* in that part of Ana- 
huac which lay upon the sea-shore, north and south, and particu- 
larly upon the shore of the Pacific Ocean, the Nahuatl (Mexican 
or Aztec) language was found as the native dialect, and that "' 
the Xinca language of Guatemala was prohably a corrupt dia- 
lect of the Mexican. 

Between the east and southeast from Zacatecas,'"' Hervas 
(vol. iii, p. 64) sets the Mazapili, who, according to him, proba- 
bly spoke a dialect of the Aztec language. He also says that '^' 
this language extended far beyond the limits of the Mexican 
empire, and quotes the statement of Herrera, that it was spoken 
in Nicaragua and in Guatemala. 

A glance at a map of Mexico, by one having even a slight 
acquaintance with this tongue, will show that the names of 
places are nearly all Aztec, even in regions of the country in 
which other languages are spoken. The map given by Orozco 
y Berra,^™' at the end of his " Geografia," and reproduced by 
M. Malte-Brun,"®" shows that the Aztec or Mexican-speaking 
tribes had possession of the entire Pacific coast of Mexico, from 
latitude 16° 40' (just south of Acapulco) to latitude 25° 20' 
(about half-way between Mazatlan and Guaymas) ; but Mexican 
names will be found far beyond these limits. 

It has been generally admitted that^'*"* the presence through- 
out nearly the whole of the Spanish peninsula, of topographical 
names significant in the Euskarian language, and evidently de- 
rived from it, makes it a safe inference that this language had 
formerly a similar extension ; and the same course of reasoning 
leads to the conclusion that the Mexican language must once 
have been spoken in nearly all portions of the present republic 
of Mexico. 

To account for this,'"* says Bancroft, we have, if other causes 
are not sufficient, the unknown history and migrations of the 
Nahua people during the centuries preceding the Toltec era. 

The Aztec language was, and is, according to Alexander von 
Humboldt, ^*^ the most widely extended of any in Mexico, It is, 
as he states, "at the present day extended from 37° north lati- 
tude to Lake Nicaragua, over a length of four hundred leagues." 

Buschmann ^^" adds that the first reasons that present themselves 
are not sufficient to explain the intensity of the extension of 
Aztec place-names : the thick setting of such names in provinces 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHAN. 367 

in which other tongues, chiefly or only, were spoken, or their 
dispersion, although more sparsely, to great distances — from the 
extreme north of Mexico nearly to the southern boundary of the 
kingdom of Guatemala. As an example of the strong setting 
of Aztec names in provinces in which other languages ruled, 
Oaxaca, Michoacan, and the whole northerly half of Guatemala, 
may be mentioned. 

Even at the time of the Spanish conquest, however, the Az- 
tec civilization and the Aztec language ruled throughout a great 
portion of the country. Bancroft says that ^" the Nahua, Aztec, 
or Mexican, the language of Mexican civilization, was spoken 
throughout the greater part of Montezuma's empire, extend- 
ing from the plateau of Anahuac, or valley of Mexico, as a 
center, eastward to the Gulf of Mexico, and along its shores 
from above Vera Cruz east to the Rio Coatzacoalcos, westward 
to the Pacific, and upon its border from about the twenty-sixth 
to the sixteenth parallel ; thus forming an irregular but continu- 
ous linguistic line from the Gulf of California southeast, across 
the Mexican plateau to the Gulf of Mexico, of more than four 
hundred leagues in extent. Again, it is found on the coast of 
Salvador and in the interior of Nicaragua, and it also had some 
connection with the languages of the nations of the north. 

Solis, speaking of the limits of the empire of Mexico at the 
time of the conquest, says ^^^ its length from east to west was 
more than five hundred leagues, and its breadth from north to 
south was in some places fully two hundred leagues. 

On the east it was bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and 
extended along its shores from Panuco to Yucatan. On the 
west it touched upon the other sea, and looked out upon the 
Asiatic Ocean (or the Gulf of Anian), from Cape Mendocino 
as far as to the limits of New Galicia. On the south it was 
bounded by the South Sea, from Acapulco to Guatemala, and 
even insinuated itself through Nicaragua into that isthmus or 
stretch of land which both divides and unites the two Americas. 
On the northern side it reached to the district of Panuco, and 
included that province. 

Orozco y Berra ^""^ states that the Mexican empire, when it 
reached its greatest extension, included a part of the State of 
Mexico ; those of Puebla and of Vera Cruz on the east ; on the 
west the greater part of the country between the Zacatula River 



368 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and the Pacific Ocean ; and that on the south it was bounded 
by the river Coatzacoalcos. 

Clavigero '"^^ says that it extended toward the southwest and 
south as far as to the Pacific Ocean ; and Bancroft says that it *^^ 
reached the Pacific coast, along which it extended from Zaca- 
lotlan to Tututepec. 

As to the identity of the civilization of the other inhabitants 
of Mexico with that of the Aztecs or Mexicans, properly so 
called, we have the express statement of Gomara,"' that " speak- 
ing of the Mexicans, is to speak in general of all New Spain." 

Such information as we have, therefore, confirms us in the 
conclusion that if Hwui Shan had visited the Pacific coast of 
Mexico during the latter half of the fifth century, he would have 
found there a nation of the same blood as that from which the 
Aztecs of Cortez's day descended, and one speaking substan- 
tially the same language as that which was found to be current 
at the time of the conquest : a nation resembling the Aztecs in 
many of their manners and customs, but of a milder, gentler 
nature ; free from the horrors of the superstitious rites to which 
the Aztecs of later times abandoned themselves, and (unless the 
greater civilization that is mentioned by tradition was wholly 
the result of Hwui Shan's visit) more advanced in many of the 
essential arts of civilization. 

The question now arises as to the name of this country. 
Had it any general name ? If so, what was it, and what was its 
meaning? It is well known that the country is now called 
*' Mexico "; but it appears to be quite generally thought that this 
term was properly the name of the city of Mexico, and that it 
was not until after the coming of the Spaniards that it over- 
spread the immense region now so designated. This statement 
is made by Bancroft ^^' and Buschmann,*^^ and was undoubtedly 
repeated by them from some of the older historians of the coun- 
try. The weight of evidence is strongly against this conclusion, 
however. It is stated, time and again, by the best authorities, 
that the real name of the city was not Mexico, but Tenochtitlan, 
or some very similar term, different authors giving the variations 
Temixtitlan,'^*' Tenuchtitlanj^^"" Tenuthtitlan,=**« Tenustitan,^*^" 
Temixtitan,"«' Tenuxtitan,"^^ Tenuchtitan,^^"^ Temixitan,»"«' Te- 
mistitan,'*"* Tenoxtitlan,'^'" Temihtitlan,'*"' Theraisteton,*'> Timi- 
tistan,*^* and Tenuchitlan.*^' 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHIn. 369 

Torquemada ^' ("Monarq. Ind.," tome i, p. 293) says ex- 
plicitly : " The natives do not call it (the city) Mexico, but Te- 
nuchtitlan." Gage '^'* states that " the old and first name of the 
city, according to some historians, was Tenuchtitlan " ; and Solis 
says,***' " The great city of Mexico was formerly known by the 
name of Tenuthtitlan, or by a similar name, which is given a 
little different pronunciation by others." Even Buschmann, who 
claims that the term Mexico was originally applied to the city, 
and not to the country, states in other places that **" " the Mexi- 
cans themselves appear to have called it Tenochtitlan in prefer- 
ence, or at least a part of it (Tlatelulco not having been included 
in that designation ^), and it appears that the Spaniards first 
made the name Mexico general." Diaz ^^"^ says that Temixtitlan, 
or Tenuchtitlan, was the proper name of the city, but adds that 
"Mexico" was certainly also an old appellation, which the elder 
Indians rejected after the conquest, but which was afterward 
accepted by the younger generation of Indians. 

It certainly can not take long to decide whether the " elder 
Indians " or the " younger generation " best knew the true Aztec 
designation of the city. " Tenochtitlan " so evidently occurred 
in the name, that many of those, who think the term Mexico to 
have been also connected with it, give the compound " Mexico- 
Tenochtitlan " ^*^ as the true appellation.^" 

In order to explain this double name, Herrera stated that '^*' 
the old residence of the Aztecs, Tenuchtitlan, had two large 
divisions, of which one was called Tlatelulco and the other 
Mexico. Gage'^^" makes the same statement, and adds that, 
because the imperial palace was in this last-named portion of 
the city, the whole city was also sometimes called Mexico, al- 
though that was not its original name. Solis ^" is of opinion 
that Mexico was the name of the ward — Tenochtitlan being ap- 
plied to the whole city; from which Bancroft concludes that the 
compound Mexico-Tenochtitlan would signify the ward Mexico 
of the city Tenochtitlan, but adds that it was but gradually that 
the Spanish records began to add Mexico to Tenochtitlan, and 
that in the course of time the older and Biore intricate name 
disappeared. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg states, however, that "' the city was 
divided into four quarters, sections, or wards, instead of two, 
and that the names of these were Teopan, Atzacualco, Moyotlan, 
24 



370 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and Quepopan. Bandelier ^"^ copies this statement, spelling the 
last name " Cuepopan," and translating the four terms in their 
order, "Place of God," "House of the Heron," "Place of the 
Mosquito," and " Place of the Dike." 

The term " Mexico " was first heard by Europeans when 
Grijalva landed on the coast in May, 1518, as the designation of 
a country rich in gold. "*^ Diaz says that when the Spaniards 
asked where the Indians obtained their gold and jewels,"" " they 
pointed toward the place of sunset, and said Culhua and Mex- 
ico.''^ In another place "''^ he states, " They could not give us 
more gold, but in a land far away toward the setting sun it 
might be found in abundance. Then they said Culba, Culba, 
and Mexico, Mexico / but we did not understand the meaning of 
these words." Prescott ^"''^ and Zamacois ^^^^ repeat the statement. 

Can it be believed that these Indians, when they pointed to- 
ward the land from which their gold was obtained, referred to a 
ward of the city of Tenochtitlan ? 

The early map-makers seem to have been for a long time un- 
decided as to whether the term Mexico was the name of the city 
or of the country, and they usually compromised by so giving the 
name that it might be understood either way. The two oldest 
maps of America,'^^^ have the name " Mexico " written in rather an 
uncertain manner some distance back in the country, and do not 
indicate whether they would have it understood to mean a prov- 
ince or a city. In " Apiano, Cosmographica," 1575, is a map, 
supposed to be a copy of one drawn by Apianus, in 1520, on 
which the name " Themisteton " is given apparently to a large 
lake in the middle of Mexico ; *^' Fernando Colon, in 1527, and 
Diego de Ribero, 1529, both give the word " Mexico " in small 
letters, inland, as if applied to a town, although no town is desig- 
nated ; Ptolemy, in "Munster," 1530, gives " Temistitau " ; 
"Munich Atlas," No. VI, supposed to have been drawn be- 
tween 1532 and 1540, "Timitistan vel Mesicho" ; Baptista Ag- 
nese, 1540-'50, "Timitistan vel Mesico " ; Ramusio, 1565, " Mex- 
ico"; "Mercator's Atlas," 1569, "Mexico," as a city, and "Te- 
nuchitlan" ; Michael Lok, 1582, "Mexico" ; in Hondius, about 
1595, in Drake's " World Encompassed," the city is " Mexico," 
and the gulf, " Baia di Mexico " ; Hondius, in " Purchas, His 
Pilgrimes," Laet, Ogilby, Dampier, " West-Indische Spieghel," 
Jacob Colon, and other seventeenth century authorities, give 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHAN. 371 

uniformly to the city, or to the city and province, but not to the 
country at large, the name as at present written. 

M Nicolas Schotter, in connection with an essay regardmg 
Americus Yespucius,'"'^ exhibited to the Congress of Americanists, 
at Luxemburg, in 1877, a remarkable map of the world, which is 
"a reproduction upon a plane surface of a silver globe, which 
made part of a chalice which the Duke Charles IV, of Lorraine, 
brought from Germany, and which is now deposited in the 
library at Nancy." Neither the name of the maker nor the date 
of his work is known, although it is seen that the German car- 
too-rapher gave to the southern part of the continent of America 
the name of " New America," to Mexico that of "New Spam, 
and that all the remainder of North America is represented as 
being an integral part of Asia, bearing the names of "Asia On- 
entails" "Asia Magna," and "India Orientalis." The Indian 
Ocean' is represented as extending from the eastern coast of 
Africa to the shores of South America. Its southeastern part, 
however, bears the names of the " Ocean of Magellan," and of 
the "Pacific Sea," proving, beyond controversy, that the globe 
in question was made after the year 1520. 

Upon this map the capital of New Spain bears the name of 
"Temixitan," while the term " Mexico " is found to the south- 
west not far from the Pacific Ocean. To the northwest agam 
occurs the name "Messigo," while not more than a dozen names 
in all are given within the territory now covered by the country 

of Mexico. 

It appears from these references that it was not until about 
half a century after the date of the conquest that the map-makers 
felt certain that they were right in applying the term Mexico to 
the city rather than to the country, and that in the earher maps 
the indications are that it was thought that it might be the name 

of the land. 

The Bishop Juan de Zumarraga dates a letter,^^"^ in 1529, from 
"Tenuxtitlan" ; again, in 1 530, he speaks of "this great city of 
Tenuchtitan," and signs the same document, "Given in the said 
city of Tenuxtitan." In 1529 he dates one of his letters from 
«Mexico.Tenustitan"^«- and in it says, " The Calzonzi of Micho- 
acan was, next to Montezuma, the most powerful kmg of all 
Mexico." Here, only a few years after the conquest, the term 
Mexico is used not as the name of the city or of a province, but 



372 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

as the name of the whole country, embracing even Michoacan, 
which was not subject to Montezuma. In a work, published 
in 1522, the following passage occurs, " They have conquered a 
city called Temistitan." *^ Here, again, in one of the first refer- 
ences to the city that appeared in Europe, there is no hint that 
its name was Mexico. 

Cortez certainly had a favourable opportunity to learn the 
name of the city that he had conquered. Time and again he 
refers to "*"' " the great city of Temistitan" ; and in one place 
he adds,""^ "Before I describe this great city and the others 
already mentioned, it may be well, for the "better understanding of 
the subject, to say something of the configuration of Mexico in 
which they are situated, it being the principal seat of Muteczuma's 
power. This province is in the form of a circle, surrounded on 
all sides by lofty and rugged mountains, its level surface com- 
prising an area of about seventy leagues in circumference." 

Summing up the evidence, it appears that the name " Mexico " 
was first heard as the designation of the country from which the 
Indians on the Gulf of Mexico obtained their gold ; that Cortez 
applied the name to the valley in which the capital city and 
many others were situated, while de Zumarraga applied it to the 
whole region, including Michoacan ; that the elder Indians did 
not recognize it as the name of their city, and that all its wards 
or divisions had other names ; that in the earlier maps and 
accounts the name of the city is given (with variations of spell- 
ing) as Tenochtitlan ; and that it gradually passed through the 
compound " Mexico-Tenochtitlan " to "Mexico," taking about 
half a century to make the change. During all this time, how- 
ever, the term " Mexico " was steadily applied to the country sub- 
stantially as it is still applied. 

No other term is given in any place as the name of the coun- 
try ; and if the land had any general name by which it was 
known, that name must have been " Mexico." 

This was neither pronounced " Mec-si-co," nor, as the Span- 
iards pronounce it, " Mejico," with the " j " sounding like the 
German "ch" or Greek "x" ; but "Me-shi-co," the "x" being 
pronounced like " sh " in English ^" or " ch " in French.*"^* 

Numerous place-names, either from the same root or from one 
very similar, will be found scattered over the country. - The Abbe 
Brasseur de Bourbourg mentions Mexilla ^'^^ (evidently from Me- 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHAN. 3Y3 

xi + the Aztec place-terniination " tlan "), Meztitlan *" (from 
3Iez + the terminations " ti " and " tlan "), Iztacmixtitlan "'' (from 
Iztac = white + ''^i^ + the terminations " ti " and " tlan "), 
Mixinhcan'''^^ (from J!f^-a;^Wi + the termination "can"), and 
Mixco''^^ (from Jfi'a; + the place-termination " co "). Bancroft 
mentions " Mexi-caltzinco " and " Mexiuh-tlan," ^^^ and a glance 
at a map of the country will also show the forms " Mixtan," 
" Mextitlan," and " Mexcala," If these words, or the majority 
of them, have a common root, it is evident that its meaning 
must be applicable in some way to a very large portion of the 
region known as Mexico. 

The last syllable, " co," serves as a suffix *'' to many place- 
names, ^'" and " signifies in or within that which is signified by 
the noun " (Parades, p. 39) ; or possibly it conveys the broader 
meaning of the region, " in " which it is situated, or " at " or 
" near " that which is signified by the preceding syllables. Ex- 
amples of its use are found in " Soconusco," ^ (formerly 
"Xoconochco "«''), " Matlatzinco," '" " Tenantzinco," «"" "Azca- 
potzalco," ««« " Xochimilco," »«' " Tezcuco," " Acapulco," "^^ etc. 

The meaning of the remainder of the word " Mexico," or of 
the entire word, has been stated in many different ways by the 
various authors who have attempted to explain it. McCulloh 
says that '*^^ the etymology of Mexico is, " Place of Mextli^'' 
the name Mextli being a synonym of Suitzilopochtli, the desig- 
nation of their god of war. He borrows this statement from 
Clavigero, and is followed by Pimentel,^"*^ Buschraann,^^ Tyler,^^^ 
Bancroft,^*' and others. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg states that,^^^ according to several 
authors, the Mexicas, or Mexicans, derived their name from one 
of their first chiefs, Mecitl, or " the Hare of the Aloes." Saha- 
gun says that ^'^'''^ the name Mexicatl was formerly pronounced 
Mecitl, formed from me or metl, which signifies the maguey, and 
from citli, a hare. This, therefore, should be written Mecicatl ; 
but the change of c to ck has produced the corruption Mexicatl. 
It is said that this name was given to the people because the 
Mexicans, when they first arrived in the country, had a chief or 
lord named Mecitl, who at the moment of his birth was surnamed 
Citli (or the Hare). As, moreover, a large leaf of the maguey 
was given to him for a cradle, he was therefore called Me-citl, as 
if to say, the man raised in this maguey leaf. When he had 



374 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

grown up he became priest of their idol, and in this quality he 
had relations with the demon — a thing which insured him respect 
in the eyes of his subjects, who, according to the account of the 
elders, adopted the name of this high-priest, and were called Mex- 
ica, or Mexicatl. 

Herrera says '^^' that, according to some, "Mexico" means a 
spring ; and this statement is often copied : but, upon reference to 
the Aztec or Mexican dictionaries, it will be found that there is 
no word in the language having any such meaning which bears 
even the most distant resemblance to the term "Mexico." 

Bancroft has the following on the subject : ^" " A number 
of derivations have been given to the word Mexico, as mexitU, 
' navel of the maguey ' ; nietl-ico, ' place amidst the maguey ' ; 
meixco, * on the maguey border ' ; mecitli, ' hare ' ; metztli, * moon ' ; 
amexica, or mexica, ' you of the anointed ones.' The significa- 
tion, 'spring' or 'fountain,' has also been applied. But most 
writers have contented themselves by assuming it to be identical 
with the mexi, mexitl, or mecitl, appellations of the war-god, 
Huitzilopochtli, to which has been added the co, an affix imply- 
ing locality ; hence ' Mexico ' would imply the place or settle- 
ment of Mexica, or Mexicans. This war-god, Huitzilopochtli, as 
is well known, was the mythic leader and chief deity of the Az- 
tecs, the dominant tribe of the Nahua nation. It was by this 
august personage, who was also called Mexitl, that, according 
to tradition, the name was given them in the twelfth century, 
and in these words, ' Inaxcan aocmoamotoca inam azteca ye am 
mexica,' ' Henceforth bear ye not the name Azteca, but Mexica.' " 

Torquemada *^" (" Monarq. Ind.," tome i, p. 293), referring to 
the principal god of the Aztecs, which had two names, Huitzilo- 
puchtli and Mexitly, says that this second name means " Navel 
of the Maguey." 

Clavigero gives the following account :"" "There is a great 
difference of opinion between different authors as to the etymol- 
ogy of the word Mexico. Some derive it from Metztli, 'the 
moon,' because they saw the moon reflected in the lake as the 
oracle had predicted. Others declare that Mexico means 'at 
the fountain or spring,' because they found a spring of good 
water upon its site. But these two derivations are too violent, 
and the first is not only violent, but also ridiculous. I thought 
at one time that the name should be Mexicco, which would mean 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHIN. 375 

* in the center of the magueys,' or Mexican aloe-plants ; but, 
from the study of the history of these people, I have been un- 
deceived, and have become convinced that Mexico means 'the 
place of Mexitli^ (or Huitzilopochtli — who was the Mars of the 
Mexicans), because of the sanctuary there built to him ; hence 
Mexico means to the Mexicans the same that Fanutn Martis 
meant to the Romans. From words of this description, when 
compounded, the Mexicans take away the final letters tl. The co 
that is added is equivalent to our preposition iii. The word 
Mexicaltzinco means the place of the house or temple of the god 
Mexitli : so that Huitzilopochco, Mexicaltzinco^ and Mexico, the 
names of the three places which were successively inhabited by 
the Mexicans, mean substantially the same thing." 

Professor J. G. Miiller, commenting upon these various state- 
ments, says : "" " If we inquire concerning the meaning of ' Mex- 
itli ' and ' Mexico,' we find the singular answers that * Mexitli ' 
means *the god of Mexico,' and that 'Mexico' means 'the 
city of Mexitli.' The name of the place called Huitzilopochco, 
and the name of the god Huitzilopochtli, might be explained in a 
similar way by their connection with each other, or the name of 
Tenoch, the mythical founder of Tenochtitlan, by its connection 
with the name of that city. Clavigero was therefore wrong 
when he was induced, by this course of reasoning in a circle, to 
withdraw his earlier view, according to which ' Mexico ' meant 

* in the midst of the maguey,' or the Mexican aloe. The Mexi- 
can word for maguey is 'metl,' from which the final consonants 

* tl,' as is the custom in the case of that termination in the Mexi- 
can language, are dropped when the word is compounded with 
others. This gives a very good explanation of the name ' Mex- 
ico.' The usual name of the city in olden times was ' Tenoch- 
titlan,' meaning ' the prickly pear upon the stone ' ; and this was 
also the hieroglyph of the city, it being clearly an emblem of the 
wandering multitude who at first were oppressed with many 
troubles. Soon, however, the place became a 'Mexico,' ^ place 
in the midst of magueys — the plants which were the richest of all 
in their blessings to the Mexicans, for they furnished them with 
their favourite drink, called ' octli,' and also with a species of 
hemp, and with paper." 

Having given this full account of the views of others, the 
present author now hopes to show that the real meaning of the 



376 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

term Mexico is " Place of the Century-plant." The name of the 
agave, or century-plant, in the Aztec language is metl, '"" and, as 
already explained,'**" nouns ending in tl lose that termination in 
compounds and derivatives. The syllable me is sometimes used 
as the plural termination of nouns,""^ and it is in a few cases in- 
terchanged with ma, the root of maitl,^^^ or maytl^^^^ the hand ; 
as, for instance, in the word meaning to carry a burden on the 
shoulders, which is sometimes written mama '**" and sometimes 
wzeme.""^ With these exceptions, however, it is doubtful whether 
the syllable me occurs in any Aztec word, except as the repre- 
sentative of the name of the agave. There is no question as to 
the power of the termination co, and the misunderstandings as to 
the meaning of the whole word have all arisen from the difficulty 
of explaining the syllable xi. The only explanation that has been 
given is that of Clavigero, who, by writing the word " Me-xic-co," 
derived the middle syllable from xic-tli, " the navel." This is 
not a satisfactory derivation, however, and it is surprising that no 
one has noticed that the syllable xi is the abbreviated represent- 
ative of the word xihuitl^^^ or xiuitl,'^^^^ meaning an herb or 
plant."-^ In accordance with the rules of the Mexican language, 
the tl would be dropped in the compound, and the abbreviation 
of the remaining xhd to xi is less violent than that which takes 
place in the Mexican language in many other cases. Buschmann, 
who is one of the leading authorities upon the subject of the Az- 
tec language, and whose soundness of judgment is universally 
recognized, speaks as follows regarding a case of much greater 
abbreviation : "° 

"I may be permitted to call it great boldness to point out 
the letter x in the forms m.axtlatl and maxtli as the last trace 
of the verb xeloa. As it is found there in close connection, 
both with the following consonant and the preceding syllable, 
it would at first sight seem that it should be regarded as a 
middle letter of a word. That an etymologist should venture 
such an unheard of conjecture as that above made, has only 
become possible through the unlimited power of induction, 
proceeding cautiously step by step. In these two examples, 
which I have treated with etymological accuracy, I have taken 
a glance into the dark history of word destruction (or abbre- 
viation) into which the tribes throughout the whole of North 
America have plunged in lawless licentiousness ; the Aztec 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SHAN. 377 

idiom to a less degree than others, but still more than has been 
believed. Only one example of a simple kind need be cited : 
Niltze, which Molina gives as an exclamation, ' ho ! halloa ! ' is 
an abbreviation of nopiltzine, my son (from pilli = son, no = my, 
tzin, the reverential form — applied here rather as an endear- 
ment — and e, the sign of the vocative)." 

In one case the syllables mexi (used with the same meaning as 
in Mexico) are abbreviated so that the xi appears as x, s, or z. 
This is in the word usually written mexcalli, but also appearing as 
mexical, mescal, mezcal, mezcale, mescali, mescale, and mizcal,^'^* 
the name of the maguey-plant (i. e., the metl^pita, agave, Ameri- 
can aloe, or century-plant — for these different terms are all ap- 
plied to the same plant,'^"^ or to mere varieties of what is essen- 
tially the same plant), or of a plant of similar growth, and a name 
which is also applied to a spirituous liquor distilled from its 
juice. Sahagun also defines the words as " the cooked leaves of 
the aloe." 

It may be stated, by the way, that the concluding syllable of 
this word is evidently a form of qualli, good,'"^ which is perhaps a 
participle of qua, to eat, meaning that which one can eat.*" Hence 
the word mexical, mezcal, or mexcalli, would mean the good or 
edible century-plant, or that part of the century-plant which can 
be eaten or drunk when suitably prepared for the purpose. This 
is surely a more appropriate etymology than that suggested by 
Buschmann, who thinks it to be from metz-calli, meaning the 
house or temple of the moon.**® 

Returning to the word " Mexico " : In the Maya language of 
Yucatan we find the word xihuitl abbreviated to arm.'"' In the 
Aztec language we find the name of the Mexican balsam-tree "'® 
to be hoitzilo-xitl,'^" and there is no other possible etymological 
explanation of the termination of this word than that it is a 
corruption of xihuitl. The form xitl, when followed by a word 
with which it was compounded, would be reduced to xi, as we 
have it in " Me-xi-co." 

Fortunately, however, we are able to give a number of JMexi- 
can words which can not be explained in any other way than 
by considering the syllable xi as the representative of the word 
xihuitl. This word is almost the only one in the Mexican lan- 
guage which has two or more radically distinct meanings. It, 
however, means not only an herb or plant, but also has the 



378 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

meanings ^^'^ " a year," " a comet," and " a turquoise." Now, 
we find, in Molina's Aztec Dictionary,"^® the following words : 

" jLimmictia, to choke or smother the plant of wheat, or 
anything similar. 

" Ximmatlallztli, a sapphire, a precious stone. 

" Xippachoa, to cover anything with herbs, or to choke the 
plant of wheat, or anything similar." 

In these words the doubled consonants indicate, merely, that 
the preceding vowel is short, and it is necessary to reject one of 
the two in order to arrive at the true etymology. The root 
mic, which occurs in the first word, conveys the idea of death, 
and is connected with miqui, to die ; ^^* tia is a verbal termina- 
tion. 3Iictia means " to kill," and xi-mictia, if we are right as 
to the meaning of the first syllable, would mean " to kill a 
plant." This is practically the definition given by Molina. The 
third word is compounded from xi and the verb pachoa,^^^'' 
meaning " to rule over, to govern, to set upon eggs like a hen." 
Here, again, the idea of overshadowing, or covering over, ex- 
pressed by pachoa, when combined with the idea of plants or 
herbs expressed by xi, produces the definitions given in the dic- 
tionary. 

In the second case, the syllable xi means a turquoise ; liztli 
is a grammatical termination, and the tnatla of xi-matla-liztli is 
connected with the word matla-Un,^^^^ meaning "an obscure 
green colour." The whole word, therefore, means a turquoise of 
an obscure green colour. 

In these cases there seems no possibility of doubt as to the 
fact that xi is an abbreviation of xihuitl. Two other cases may 
be cited in which this word is abbreviated to tz and z, just as, in 
the different forms of mexcalU^ it is reduced to x, s, or z. Olli 
is the Aztec name for India rubber,"'® while metzolU means "" 
"the marrow or soft part of the maguey." Here me means 
the maguey, olli the soft elastic portion, and the tz can mean 
nothing else that plant. We also find meztallotl,^^^^ "the white 
heart of the maguey before it throws out its shoot," and metol- 
lotl^^^^ " the marrow or soft part of the maguey." It is difiicult 
to explain why the inserted z in the first word does not affect the 
meaning, on any other theory than that it means plant. Another 
case in which the termination huitl is dropped in a compound 
is seen in the word quammaitl,^''^ " a branch of a tree," of which 



THE COUNTRY INDICATED BY HWUI SIIAN. 379 

the part onaitl means a hand or arm — in this case, a branch — 
while the syllable qua can be nothing else than the abbreviated 
representative of the word quahuitl, a tree. 

From these illustrations, drawn from the Mexican language, 
it appears to be established beyond any reasonable question that 
the term "Me-xi-co" (pronounced by the Aztecs Me-shi-co) 
means " the Place of the Agave-plant," or " the Region of the 
Century-plant. That this is an appropriate designation, and one 
which would very naturally be given by any people coming into 
the country from beyond its borders, will be admitted by all 
who have visited it. 

The plant is peculiar to the country ; it grows throughout 
nearly all portions of the land ; its peculiarities are such as to in- 
stantly attract attention ; and, as will be explained in the follow- 
ing chapter, it may be claimed to be of greater value to the 
inhabitants than any and all other plants growing in the 
country. 

There is, therefore, reason to believe that if Hwui Shan visited 
the region which he claimed to have explored, he reached the 
country now known as Mexico, and then probably called by the 
same name ; this appellation, as we have seen, being derived from 
that of the most useful and remarkable plant which is found there. 

The connection between the term Mexico and the name of 
the god Mexiili^ or Huitzilopochtli, may be explained by suppos- 
ing him to have originally been a deification of the century- 
plant. 

" They manufactured so many things from this plant called 
maguey,^^* and it is so very useful in that country, that the devil 
took occasion to induce them to believe that it was a god, and 
to worship and offer sacrifices to it." (" Spiegazione delle Tavole 
del codice Mexicano," in Kingsborough's "Mex. Antiq.," vol. v, 
pp. 179-180.) 

His name of Huitzilopochtli — which has been supposed to be 
derived from Suitzitzilin, or, as Molina spells the word, Yitzitzi- 
Ihi,'^^^ " the humming-bird," and the root opoch, found in the 
word opochmaitl,^^^ ^Hhe left hand" {maitl meaning "hand")> 
and which he was said to have been given because he had a fringe 
of humming-birds' feathers adorning his left leg — seems rather 
to have been derived from Huitzla^^^ " a thorny place or a 
thorny plant," and the root poch, with the termination tli^ as 



380 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

found in tel-pochtli,^^* " a youth," and ich-pochtli,^''^ " a maiden," 
and to have meant ''the Ever-youthful One of the Thorny 
Plant." 

The termination j^ochtU occurs in the name of the god 
(9-/>oc/*^/^, protector of fishermen °°^' (perhaps originally ^-^j)oc/<?^2, 
"the Youthful One of the Water"), and it here evidently has 
nothing to do with tlie left hand. That the termination jooc/i^/i 
was not an essential part of Huitzilopochtli's name is shown by 
the fact that '" the place in which his temple was situated was 
called Huitzillan, a compound formed from Iluitzil with the 
place-termination tlan. 

Bancroft states^" that Huitzilopochtli was the son of the 
goddess of plants, and that his connection with the botanical 
kingdom is shown by the fact that he was specially worshiped at 
three ancient yearly feasts, which took place exactly at those 
periods of the year that are the most influential for the Mexican 
climate : the middle of May, the middle of August, and the end 
of December. 

The theory, that he was originally a deification of the century- 
plant, is strengthened by the fact that he was considered as the 
god of vegetation, by whose power it was annually revivified."" 
"We also find the word Vitzyecoltia'^^'^ (which by many other 
authors would be spelled Huitzyecoltia, Molina always using v or u 
before a vowel to indicate the sound of the English lo, which 
other writers indicate by the letters hu) defined as meaning 
" to celebrate the feast of the vine." The syllable yec is from 
the root of yec-tli, meaning " good." The last five letters form 
a verbal termination. The syllable vitz can mean nothing else 
than a thorn or thorny plant, and must have originally referred 
to the century-plant — which was the one from which the Mexi- 
cans obtained their " wine," which was the only intoxicating 
liquor with which they were acquainted ; and the plant is therefore 
frequently referred to by early authors as the " vine " of the 
country. The Mexicans certainly had no feast dedicated to the 
grape-vine, as, although it occurs in the country (as will be 
showTi in Chapter XXII), it is seldom referred to, and they never 
made wine from grapes.'"' 

Since writing the above, I have found the following statement 
in Sahagun : -^" " New wine made from the maguey is called 
uitz-tU.''^ This seems to remove all possibility of doubt of the 



THE COUNTPwY IXDICATED BY HWUI SHlX. 381 

connection of the verbal root variously spelled uitz, vitz, and 
huitz, with the century-plant. 

The name Camaxtle,^*'"^ or Camaxtli,^^''^ under which this god 
was worshiped by the Tlascaltecs, seems to have been formed 
from the prefix ca (meaning unknown) and a variant of the 
name Mexitli. This people also knew him by the name of 3Iix- 
couatl,^^''* in which another variation of the same word may be 
seen. 

While it is true that the word " Mexico " means " the Place 
of the Century-plant," it could also be used with the meaning of 
" the Place of Mexi-tli "/ Mexi-tli being (as above explained) 
nothing but a name for the personified or deified century-plant. 
Now, in the center of the city of Tenochtitlan, there was a large 
square containing the temple in which the god Huitzilopochtli, 
or Mexitli, was worshiped. This square and its temple would 
be called " Mexico," meaning (in this connection) "the Place of 
the God Mexitli," and this fact explains how it was that the 
name was thought to apply, first, to a ward of the city, and, 
later, to the whole city ; why it was that many of the Spaniards 
supposed it to be applicable to a limited area only, instead of to 
the whole country, and why they failed to learn its original sig- 
nification. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE rU-SANG TEEE AND THE RED PEARS. 

Connection between the name of the country and that of the " tree " — Apphcation 
to smaller plants of the Chinese character translated "tree" — Application 
of the term " tree " to the century-plant — Description of the metl, maguey, 
agave, aloe, or century -plant — The leaves of the fu-sang — Disagreement of dif- 
ferent texts — The t'ung tree — Evidence of corruption in the text — Conject- 
ure as to original reading — Similarity of the young sprouts to those of the 
bamboo — Their edibility — Thread and cloth from the fiber of the plant — 
The finer fabric made from it — Variation in the texts — Manufacture of pa- 
per — The red pear — The prickly-pear — Resemblance of the century-plant to 
the cacti — Preserves made from the prickly-pears — Confusion in the Mexican 
language between milk and the sap of the century-plant — The Chinese *' lo," 
or koumiss — The liquor made from the sap of the century-plant — Its resem- 
blance to koumiss — Indians never use milk — Confusion in other Indian lan- 
guages between sap and milk — Meaning of the name fu-sang — ^Variations in 
the characters with which it is written — The spontaneous reproduction of the 
century-plant — The decomposition of the character " sang " — The tree of the 
large wine-jar — The tree having a great cloud of blossoms — Blooming but 
once in a thousand years — The Chinese name of the prickly-pear — Eitel's 
definition of the term " fu-sang " — Professor Gray's statement. 

Having thus settled, as far as it is now possible to do so, tlie 
character of the nation which Hwui Shan would have found in 
the region indicated by him, if he actually took the journey 
which he claimed that he had made, and having attempted to 
determine the name of the country, and its meaning, let us now 
continue the examination of his story. 

II, — That region has many fu-sang trees, and it is from 
these trees that the country derives its name of fu-sang. 

The leaves resemble ? and the first sprouts are like 

those of the bamboo. The people of the country eat 
them and the (or a) fruit, which is like a pear (in form), 
but of a reddish colour. They spin thread from their 



THE FU-SANG TREE AND THE EED PEARS. 383 

BAEK, FBOM WHICH THEY MAKE CLOTH OF WHICH THEY MAKE 

clothikg ; they also manufactube a fikee fabeic feom it. 

They make papee feom the bark of the fu-sang. . . . 

They have the eed peaes kept unspoiled theoughout the 

YEAE. 

One of the first points to attract the attention is, that there 
is a connection between the name of the country and that of a 
species of " tree " which grows there. It has abeady been shown 
that there is a similar connection between the name " Mexico " 
and the agave, or century-plant. It might be claimed, however, 
that this is not a " tree." 

In reply to this objection, it may be said that it is probable 
that the century-plant would be included by the Chinese under 
the general term muh, /fC, which is here translated " tree," this 
character being used by the Chinese not only as the radical of 
trees, but also of shrubs. '■"" Fig. 10 contains illustrations of two 














Fig. 10.— Two plants classified in the 'Ed-ta, under the heading moi, or " trees." 



plants which in the 'Rh-ya (a book written by one of the most 
celebrated scholars of the Han dynasty, between b. c. 202 and 
A. D. 25) are included under this general heading of mth, or 
"trees." It is evident that, if these insignificant plants can 
properly be included in that term, the century-plant— the flower- 
ing-stalks of which sometimes tower to a height of forty '"" or 
fifty '''' feet, throwing out branches on every side,'"" and being 



384 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

sufficiently solid to be used as beams/^'° of which houses are built 
in many places ; ^"" these stalks being said to make " very good 
rafters," and being also used as fuel," — can hardly be excluded, 
either on the ground of size or of lack of woody consistency. 

As a matter of fact, the term " tree " was usually applied to 
the century-plant by the early writers. Acosta, for instance, 
says : " " The maguey is the tree of marvels, to which the Indians 
are accustomed to ascribe miracles, inasmuch as it gives them 
water, wine, oil, vinegar, honey, syrup, thread, and a thousand 
other things. It is a tree which the Indians of New Spain es- 
teem very highly. . . . The wood of this tree is hollow and soft, 
and is used for preserving a fire, for it burns slowly like a match- 
lock, and keeps the fire for a long time, and I have seen the In- 
dians use it for this purpose." 

So, too, Gage says : "" " About Mexico, more than in any 
other part, groweth that excellent tree called metV ; and,"" 
"There are also mantles made of the leaves of a tree called 
nietV Bartram also speaks of " a forest " of agaves, and ex- 
plains : "° " I term it a forest, because their scapes, or flower- 
stems, arose erect near thirty feet high." 

It is therefore manifest that Hwui Shan is not alone in his 
application of the term " tree " to the century-plant. 

Before examining his description of the plant, or tree, from 
which the country took its name, it will be best to note what is 
said by other writers regarding the plant which, if Mexico is 
identified with Fu-sang, must have been the " f u-sang tree " of 
Hwui Shan. 

Prescott says : ^^^^ " The miracle of nature was the maguey, 
whose clustering pyramid of flowers, towering above their dark 
coronals of leaves, were seen sprinkled over many a broad acre 
of the table-land. Its bruised leaves afforded a paste from which 
paper was manufactured ; its juice was fermented into an in- 
toxicating beverage, ^ndciue, of which the natives to this day 
are excessively fond ; its leaves further supplied an impenetrable 
thatch for the more humble dwellings ; thread, of which coarse 
stuffs were made, and strong cords, wei'e drawn from its tough 
and twisted fibers ; pins and needles were made of the thorns at 
the extremity of its leaves ; and the root, when i:)roperly cooked, 
was converted into a palatable and nutritious food. The agave, 
in short, was meat, drink, clothing, and writing-materials, for the 



THE FU-SANG TREE AND THE RED PEARS. 385 




Fig. 11. — A centuiy-plant in bloRSom. 



25 



386 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Aztec ! Surely, never did nature inclose in so compact a form 
so many of the elements of human comfort and civilization I " 

Clavigero, in his " History of Mexico," has epitomized the 
uses of the various kinds of agaves of that country in the fol- 
lowing language : °^™ 

"Some species furnish protecting inclosures, and afford im- 
passable hedges to other objects of cultivation. • From the juice 
of others are extracted honey, sugar, vinegar, indque, and ardent 
spirits. From the trunk and the thickest part of the leaves, 
roasted in the earth, an agreeable food is obtained. The flower- 
ing-stalks serve as beams, and the leaves as roofs for houses. The 
thorns answer for lancets, awls, needles, arrowheads, and other 
cutting and penetrating instruments. But the fibrous substance 
of the leaves is the most important gift of the agaves of JNIexico. 
According to the species, the fiber varies in quality from the 
coarsest hemp to the finest flax, and may be employed as a supe- 
rior substitute for both. From it the ancient Mexicans fabri- 
cated their thread and cordage ; mats and bagging ; shoes and 
clothing ; webs equivalent to cambric and canvas ; the ham- 
mocks in which they were born, and in which they reposed and 
died, and the paper on which they painted their histories, and 
with which they adored and adorned their gods. The value of 
these agaves is enhanced by their indifference to soil, climate, 
and season ; by the simplicity of their cultivation, and by the 
ease with which their products are extracted and prepared. It 
is not, therefore, surprising that the ancient Mexicans used 
some part or preparation of these plants in their civil, military, 
and religious ceremonies, and at marriages and deaths ; nor that 
they perpetuated an allusion to their properties in the name of 
their capital." '"'* 

Fig. 11 is a cut of a century-plant, adapted by the engraver 
from a photograph, by Mr. Taber of San Francisco, of a plant 
now (December, 1884) in blossom in that city. The represen- 
tation of the flowering-stalk is much better than that of the 
leaves about its base. 

It is unfortunate that the various Chinese authorities differ 
so radically as to what it was that the leaves of the fu-sang tree 
resembled, that it seems impossible to determine, with any cer- 
tainty, the real statement of Hwui Shan on the subject. 

In Ma Twan-lin's account, it is said that they resemble those 



THE FU-SANG TREE AND THE RED PEARS. 



387 



of the t'ung tree. This is said by Klaproth to be the Bignonia 
tomentosa, by Keumann to be the Dryandra cordifolia, by Julien 
to be the Paullownia imperialis, and by Leland to be the Dry- 
anda cordata, or Eleococca verrucosa. 

Fig. 12, copied from the 'Rh-ya, shows, on the left, the 
TUNG-TUXG, or "Beautiful tVxg" tree; now called the wu- 









Fig. 12. — The t'ung tree and the wild mulberry. 

t'uxg ; and this in Williams's Dictionary (p. 1060) is said to be 
the Eleococca verrucosa. In the same engraving is given a pict- 
ure of the wild mulberry, or mountain mulberry, the leaves of 
which will be seen to closely resemble those of the yung-t'uxg. 
Leland states, however,'"' that in the " Year Books of the 
Liang Dynasty," the character is not written j^, t'u>'G, the t'ung 
tree, but ^, t'ung, cojyper. According to this older authority, 
therefore, the leaves of the fu-sang tree resembled copper. The 
old Chinese geography, called the Shan Ilai King, adds to the 
confusion by saying that the leaves are like mustard, or sinapis. 
The two characters given above have the same " phonetic," or 
"primitive" (the part at the right), and differ only in the "radi- 
cal" (the part at the left), which, in the first is "tree," and, in 
the second, is " metal." The characters are so much alike that 
the indications are strong that the first was substituted for the 
second by some copyist or commentator, who reasoned as fol- 



388 AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

lows : " The appellation ' fu-sang ' means ' the useful mulberry.' 
The tree wiis therefore some species of mulberry. The Regis- 
ters of the Liang Dynasty say that its leaves resemble copper. 
This is evidently a mistake ; there is no plant having leaves re- 
sembling copper ; the character, however, very much resembles 
that used for the t'ung tree, and the leaves of this tree are very 
similar to those of the mulberry. It is therefore probable that 
some copyist, transcribing the old records, written before print- 
ing was invented, mistook a carelessly written character, t'ung, 
ll^, meaning ' the t'ung tree,' for the character t'ung, ^, ' cop- 
per.' I will correct his error, and restore the reading as it 
must originally have stood." So, like many of our Shakespearean 
commentators, he probably substituted his own conjecture for 
the original text, merely because he was unable to understand 
the latter ; and thereby made it almost impossible for those 
coming after him to detect the real meaning of the author. 

If I may be permitted to submit a surmise, which is con- 
fessedly a mere conjecture, of which the most that can be said is 
that it Impossibly true ; I would suggest that the old reading " cop- 
per " is probably an error, but that the mistake is not in the radi- 
cal, but in the phonetic. There is in the Chinese language a 
character, §^, keu,°^^^ which closely resembles the one used for 
" copper," Up). This character keu is defined as meaning " a 
hook, a barb, a claw, a fluke ; a sickle, a bill-hook ; a crooked 
sword ; to hook, to make crooked or hooked." It is evident that 
the general idea is that of being crooked, sharp, and barbed ; and 
the character was probably originally composed of the radical 
" metal " with a picture of a fish-hook and its bait. This character 
is used in the compound keu-yao,"" " the barbed-exotic," which 
is applied to a species of thistle found in Kiang-su. No charac- 
ter in the Chinese language would better describe the curved 
and prickly leaves of the century-plant, " armed with teeth like a 
shark," ^^^^ than this term keu, " a hook, a barb, a crooked sword." 
Now, if Hwui Shan said that the leaves of the fu-sang resembled fi|, 
it is not beyond the limits of reasonable possibility that this may 
have been so illegibly written as to have been mistaken for ||pj, 
or that some copyist may have carelessly made this change 
while transcribing. Then the course of reasoning above sug- 
gested would very naturally have led to the substitution of the 
character :f|^, and the accounts would have exhibited the confu- 



THE FU-SANG TREE AND THE RED PEARS, 



3S9 



sion and contradiction that we now find. It is not contended 
that these changes are proved, or anything more than merely 
possible. It is claimed, however, that unless some such changes 
took place, the variations in the texts can not be explained ; and 
that it is now impracticable to decide with certainty as to the 
character originally used. The fact that the leaves of the cent- 
ury-plant do not at all resemble those of the t'uxg tree is there- 
fore no proof that the fu-sang tree was not the century-plant 

In Hwui Shan's next statement we find a detail regarding 
which there is no dispute, which makes it absolutely impossible 
that the original description of the plant can have represented 
that its leaves resembled those of the t'uxg tree. This is the fact 
that " the first sprouts are like those of the bamboo." Now, the 
bamboo is an endogenous plant, and the first sprouts of nearly all 
endogens have a similar general character, but differ widely from 
those of the exogens. No mulberry, no t'ung tree (if this is cor- 
rectly identified by any of the authors above named), ever exhib- 
ited a " first sprout " which even the most careless observer could 
consider as at all resembling that of the bamboo, while this com- 
parison might be made with 






justice as to the sprout of 
almost any endogenous plant. 

Fig. 13, a copy of another 
illustration of the 'Rh-ya, 
gives a picture of these bam- 
boo-sprouts. It is not difficult 
to find specimens of the cent- 
ury-plant in almost any of 
our cities, and young sprouts 
may frequently be found push- 
ing up around them. If the 
reader will take the trouble to 
examine some of these, he will 
see that the illustration of 
bamboo-sprouts will answer 
nearly as well for those of the 
century -plant. The resemblance is very close and very striking, 

Hwui Shan would hardly have been likely to mention these 
shoots, however, if it were not a fact that their great number 
about the elder plants is such as to attract attention. M. Jourdanet, 




Fig. 13. — Bamboo-sprouts. 



390 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS, 

in his notes upon Saliagun, says that, '-^' at an advanced period of 
the plant's development, eight or ten shoots grow up about it ; 
while Bartlett "' and Squier °^" agree in the statement that " an 
infinity of shoots " springs from the decaying roots of the old 
plants, and that no known plant multiplies with greater facility. 

Our Asiatic traveler noticed a second point of resemblance to 
bamboo-shoots, however, and that lay in the fact that they were 
edible. Professor Williams states that ^^^" the tender shoots of 
the bamboo are cultivated for food, and are, when four or five 
inches high, boiled, pickled, and comfited. Crawfurd says that'*^* 
the young shoots of the bamboo are, with the natives of the In- 
dian Islands, a frequent, favourite, and agreeable esculent vege- 
table, and may be either boiled, or used with vinegar as a pickle. 

The '* Chinese Rei^ository " gives the following account : '^ 
-"The young and tender shoots of the bamboo are used as a 
vegetable for the table in different ways ; if cut as soon as they 
appear above the ground, they are almost as tender and delicate 
as asparagus. They are white and palatable, and when in this 
state are used as pickles, as greens, as a sweetmeat, and as a 
medicine. The fondness for these young shoots is so general 
that they are made articles of commerce, and are sent to the 
capital and all parts of the empire. They are cured by exposing 
them, when fresh, to steam, and afterward drying them. They 
often form a part in the feasts of the rich, and constitute an im- 
portant article of diet for the priests. These young shoots are 
artificially cultivated during the most part of the year. All 
classes use the pickle, as a relish, with rice and other vegetable 
dishes." 

The statement of Clavigero,"™ that, from the trunk of the 
century-plant and the thickest part of the leaves, roasted in the 
earth, an agreeable food is obtained, has already been quoted. 
Bancroft mentions the maguey-plant, Agave Mexicana, among 
the articles on which the natives of New Mexico rely for food,"° 
and also names "roasted portions of the maguey stalks and 
leaves "^"^ among the articles of food used by the natives of 
Mexico. General Crook, in his report to the Government of his 
expedition against the Mescalero Apaches (who take even their 
name from the " mescal," before referred to — a species of agave), 
states as one of the reasons which make it almost impossible to 
capture them, that ''*' " the agave grows luxuriantly in the mount- 



THE FU-SANG TEEE AND THE RED PEARS. 391 

ains, and upon this plant alone the Indians can live." M. God- 
ron says that "'^ they not only eat the tender roots of the plant, 
but also the central shoot, keejDing its soft and fleshy consistence. 

It is reasonable to believe that the young and tender shoots 
would be included among the parts of a " soft and fleshy consist- 
ence," and so would be eaten with the rest. Other authors do 
not mention them particularly, as they would form only a small 
portion of the food derived from the jDlants, but Ilwui Shan 
would be led to refer specially to them, because of their resem- 
blance to the edible shoots of the bamboo. 

The Chinese text says that the people of the country spun 
thread from the bark of the fu-sang tree, from which they made 
cloth, of which they made clothing, and that they also manufact- 
ured a finer fabric from it. 

In the case of most exogenous fiber-producing plants, it is 
from one of the layers of bark that the fiber is derived, and those 
who are accustomed to seeing flax, hemj), or the j)aper-mulberry, 
naturally learn to associate fiber with the "bark," and to speak 
of it as derived therefrom, even in the case of endogenous 
plants, which have no true bark, and in which the fiber is scat- 
tered through the stems and leaves. The Abbe Brasseur de 
Bourbourg, for instance, makes the statements that ^' the Cak- 
chiquels made garments from the hark of trees, and of magueys, 
and that ^^' neqiien is a species of coarse hemp which the Mexi- 
cans draw from the bark of the aloe, or maguey. 

Dr. Brinton, also, after mentioning that three Central Ameri- 
can codices, described by him, were alP^' written on paper 
manufactured from the leaves of the maguey-plant, refers to the 
statements of old writers, who said that the books of the Mexi- 
cans were made of the hark of trees. 

In Ma Twan-lin's text, the clause which I have translated, 
" They also manufacture a finer fabric from it " (the thread), 
reads, " They make kix, |,|, from it " (the thread). The term kik 
is defined as meaning " embroidered stuff, or embroidered and 
ornamented stuff in general." "" Professor Williams (p. 399 
of his dictionary) defines it as a kind of thin brocade, and in 
the article, copied in Chapter XIV of this work, says that the 
word is applied to embroidery and parti-coloured textures. It is 
not so much the damask-like figure that is the essential point, 
but among the Chinese the kin always has a variety of colours. 



392 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Mr. Leland says, however,"'' that the " Tear Books of the 
Liang Dynasty" have, instead of kin, the character mien (evi- 
dently J^^), which signifies fine silk. This "Register of the 
Liang Dynasty" is the original authority on the subject, and, in 
case of a variation in the texts, its reading is entitled to at least 
as much attention as that of Ma Twan-lin. 

Hepburn defines the character mien, " cotton, floss silk," "" 
and says that the ''Tree-MiEX," ^f; |^, is a kind of cloth, made 
of the bark of the mulberry, worn in ancient times."'^ Professor 
Williams defines the word, " soft, cottony, like fine floss or raw 
silk, drawn out, prolonged, extended, as a thread or fiber." 

It is therefore probable that in the time of Hwui Shan the 
term was applied to some species of soft textile fabric, made 
from the fiber of the paper-mulberry, of a finer quality than the 
usual coarse material manufactured from it, and if the word was 
so used in his days, he would naturally apply it to a similar ma- 
terial made from the agave fiber. 

As to the manufactures of the Mexicans, McCulloh says : '*^* 
" From the maguey they made two kinds of cloth, one of which 
was like hempen cloth, and a finer hind which resembled linen?'' 

Clavigero states that '"^^ " from the leaves of the pati* and 
of the quetzalicJitli (species of maguey), they drew a fine thread, 
with which they made cloth as good as that made of linen, and 
from the leaves of other species of maguey they derived a 
coarser thread similar to hemp." This account is repeated by 
the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg.'"' 

Sahagun, also, when speaking of the merchant who deals in 
mantles made from the fiber of the maguey, says : ^'^^^ " Some of 
those which he sells are of light tissue, similar to those which 
are used for head-dresses, such as the finely woven mantles of 
the single thread of the nequen, and those which are made from 
the twisted threads of this plant. He also sells others of coarse 
texture, very closely woven, and still others coarse and thick, 
made either from the pita, or from the thread of the maguey." 

The Chinese account says that paper, also, is made from the 
bark of the f u-sang ; and the following quotations regarding the 
paper manufactured from the fiber of the agave, maguey, or 
century-plant will be of interest in this connection. 

Bancroft says : "^- " Paper, in Aztec amatl, used chiefly as a 

* Perhaps a typographical error. The pita is probably meant. — E. P. V. 



THE FU-SANG TREE AISB THE RED PEARS. 393 

material on which to paint the hieroglyphic records, was made 
for the most part of maguey fiber, although the other fibers used 
in the manufacture of cloth were occasionally mixed with those 
of this plant. The material must have been pressed together 
when wet, and the product was generally very thick, more like a 
soft pasteboard than our jiaper. The surface was smooth, and 
well adapted to the painting which it was to bear. Certain gums 
are said to have been used for the more perfect cohesion of the 
fiber, and the amatl was made in long, narrow sheets suitable 
for rolling or folding." 

The Cavalier Boturini,* a collector of Mexican relics, in- 
forms us ^^^' (yet from sources which he has omitted to quote) : 
" Indian paper was made from the leaves of the maguey, which, 
in the language of the natives, was called metl, and in Spanish 
pita. The leaves were soaked, putrefied, and the fibers washed, 
smoothed, and extended for the manufacture of thin as well as 
thick paper." "* 

Squier makes the following statement : ^^''^ " The fiber of the 
mafjuey is coarser than that of the Agave Sisilana, but it is, 
nevertheless, of great utility, and is extensively used. The an- 
cient Mexicans painted their hieroglyphical records and ritual 
calendars on paper made from the leaves of this plant, macerated 
in water, and the fibers deposited in layers, like those of the 
Egyptian cyperus (papyrus), and the mulberry of the South Sea 
Islands ; and in modern times the fibers are used for a corre- 
spondiiig purpose. Indeed, the paper made from the maguey 
is so much esteemed for its toughness and durability, over that 
made in the United States and EuroiDC, that, in 1830, a law was 
enacted by the Mexican Congress requiring that no other kind 
of paper should be used in recording the laws, or in the execu- 
tion of legal documents." 

He adds '"^ that Mr. Brantz Mayer, in his work, " Mexico as 
It Was and as It Is," p. 313, observes : "The best coarse wrap- 
ping or envelope paper I have ever seen is made in Mexico, from 
the leaves of the Agave Americana. It has almost the tough- 
ness and tenacity of iron." 

Hwui Shan's account says that the people of the country ate a 
fruit which was like a pear in appearance, but which was red. The 

*Caraliere Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci, " Idea de Una Nueva Historia Gene- 
ral y Catalogo del Museo Historico," Madrid, 1746, p. 95. 



394: AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

character siiih used to designate the fruit, indicates that it did 
not have a nut or kernel,'"*^ as, if it had, the term kwo "*^ 
woukl prob'ably have been used instead. The connection is such 
that it is naturally inferred that the fruit referred to was that 
of the fu-sang. This seems the most probable meaning of the 
text ; and yet I hardly think it entirely certain that the meaning 
may not have been that the people ate a fruit — instead of the 
fruit (of the fu-sang). The fruit referred to can be nothing else 
than the well-known prickly-pear, otherwise called the noctli^^^^ 
nopam,'^'' oiopal,^'^^ nochtli,'^'^ tuna,'''' or Indian fig.=^'» The re- 
semblance of its shape to that of a pear is such that it derives 
its best-known name from this fact, and, while there are species 
of many diflFerent colours,"** the common wild vai'iety is red. It 
is the fruit of a species of cactus. The agave, or century-plant, 
belongs to a different botanical family, and yet it so closely re- 
sembles the cacti, in many of their most striking peculiarities, that 
travelers fi'equently fall into the error of classing it with them. 
Lieutenant Herndon, for instance, says that the " maguey is a 
species of cactus." '^^^ An editorial article in the New York 
"Herald," of February 17, 1883, says that "the present customs 
duty on hennequin, or Sisal hemp — which is the product of a 
kind of cactus — is six dollars a ton " ; the fact being that 
the so-called Sisal hemp is derived from a species of agave very 
closely related to the century-plant. So, also, an article in the 
Chicago "Tribune," of May 11, 1884, mentions "that species 
of cactus called the maguey." Both the agaves and the cacti 
are distinguished from other plants by their thick, fleshy, stem- 
less leaves, which, in both cases, are usually armed with strong 
spines or thorns. They grow in arid ''^'^ and barren '^'^ lands, 
in which scarcely any other plant — except varieties of artemi- 
sia, or sage-brush — can live ; and it is not strange that they 
should be considered by the unscientific observer as different 
species of one general family. It is possible that Ilwui Shan 
used the term fu-sang as a generic name, under which he in- 
tended to include all varieties of the cactus, and that he classed 
the agaves with them. Mexico is the home of both plants, and 
they form the characteristic vegetation of a large portion of 
that country. They are indigenous nowhere else except in the 
neighbouring regions, and it is in Mexico that they present more 
varieties and larger species than in any other part of the globe.'** 



THE FU-SANG TREE AND THE EED PEARS. 395 

The prickly-pear abounds in nearly all portions of Mexico, and 
it is a fruit that is much esteemed, and which enters largely into 
the food of the inhabitants. Gage says of it that it is ''"'' " abso- 
lutely one of the best fruits " in the country. Emory speaks of 
its " truly delicious " taste. Diaz states that the army of Cortez '"■"* 
lived for a time upon it ; and Prescott says that the provisions 
with which his camp was supplied from the friendly towns in the 
neighbourhood consisted of fish and the fruits of the country, '"'' 
" particularly a sort of fig borne by the tuna ( Cactus opu7itia)" 
The last statement of the Chinese text regarding these " red 
pears " is, that they are kept unspoiled throughout the year. In 
the relation of the voyage to Cibola, undertaken in 1540, con- 
tained in vol. ix, of the first series of the "Voyages," etc., pub- 
lished by M. Ternaux-Compans, it is stated that the people of the 
country "" " make many preserves from tunas, the juice of which 
is so sweet that it preserves them perfectly without adding any 
syrup." The statement is also made in another place that, " in a 
province called Nacapan, many iicnas, or Indian figs, are found, 
of which the people make preserves." ^^^^ 

The Marquis d'Herveyde Saint-Denys, in his notes, which are 
given in the twelfth chapter of this work, calls attention to the 
fact that the Encyclopaedia, Ku-km-tu-shii-tai-cMnff, gives the 
passage of the Chinese text last above referred to, " They have 
the pears of thefu-sang tree,'' etc., instead of the reading given 
by Ma Twan-lin. This seems to indicate that there was a doubt 
in the minds of various Chinese authors and compilers as to 
whether the " red pears " were or were not the fruit of the fu- 
sang tree. 

Before leaving the account of the fu-sang, there is another 
statement of the Chinese text, which, in my opinion, should be 
connected with the details regarding this plant, and that is : 
III. — From milk they make koumiss. 

As this phrase follows a reference to the deer of the country, 
it has usually been translated, " from the milk of the hinds they 
make butter, cheese, creamy dishes, or cream " ; for all these 
articles are named by different authors as indicated by the Chi- 
nese character lo, which in the translation given above is ren- 
dered " koumiss." The words, " of the hinds," italicized above, 
are not found in the Chinese text, and are supplied only from 
the inferences of the translators. 



396 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

According to the " Chinese Repository," '" the products of 
the dairy, as milk, butter, and cheese, ai'e hardly known among 
the Chinese. Milk is usually cooked by boiling ; it is also em- 
ployed in making cakes, pastry, etc. Butter and cheese are not 
used by them, nor do they understand the process of making the 
latter. Professor Williams refers to the same fact in the following 
words : "™' " The Chinese use very little from the dairy, as milk, 
butter, or cheese ; the very small number of cattle raised in the 
country, and the consequent dearness of these articles, may have 
caused them to fall into disuse, for they are all common among 
the Manchus and Mongols. A Chinese table seems ill-furnished 
to a foreigner when he sees neither bread, butter, nor milk upon 
it, and, if he expresses his disrelish of the oily dishes or alliaceous 
stews before him, the Chinese thinks that he gives a sufficient 
reply to the disparagement of his taste, when he answers, ' You 
eat cheese, and sometimes when it can almost walk.' " 

In many other parts of Asia, as, for instance, in Sumatra, 
the natives use no milk or butter,***^ 

Koumiss, or some similar preparation, was made by the Chi- 
nese, however,'^"* as far back as in the days of the Han dynasty 
(b. c. 202 to A. D. 25), and the following account of it is given '°°* 
in the " Chinese Repository " : 

" The Chinese describe a preparation, made from the milk of 
various domestic animals, that resembles the koumiss, found 
among the Tartars. It is called lo, and is made in the follow- 
ing manner : Put a quart of milk into a boiler, and simmer 
it for some time, when another quart is to be added, and the 
whole boiled until many bubbles arise to the surface, all the 
while stirring it about with the ladle ; now pour it into a ves- 
sel, and wait till it is cold, when the pellicle that forms upon 
the surface is to be taken off to form the soo (a kind of oil 
that is simmered from such pellicles). Now add a little old lo, 
and cover it up for a while with paper, until it is completely 
made." 

This is evidently the lo mentioned in our text, and it was, 
therefore, neither butter, cheese, cream, nor any similar article 
of food. 

Attention has been -called to the fact that a "wine," much 
resembling koumiss, was made by the Mexicans from the sap of 
the agave, and it has been claimed that if Hwui Shan was at- 



THE rU-SANG TREE AND THE RED PEARS. 397 

tempting to describe the agave, or century-plant, in the tree which 
he calls fu-sang, he would have referred to this liquor that was 
made from it. Bancroft '"* says that one of the most popular 
Nahua beverages was that since known as pulque. This liquor, 
called by the natives oc«?^— pulque, or pulcre, being a South 
American aboriginal term applied to it in some unaccountable 
way by the Spaniards — was the fermented juice of the maguey. 
One plant is said to yield about one hundred pounds in a month. 
A cavity is cut at the base of the larger leaves, and allowed to 
fill with juice, which is removed to a vessel of earthenware or 
of skin, where it ferments rapidly and is ready for use. 

In another place ^" he states that their principal and national 
drink is pulque, made from the Agave Americancf, and is thus 
prepared : When the plant is about to bloom, the heart, or stalk, 
is cut out, leaving a hole in the center, which is covered with the 
outer leaves. Every twenty -four hours, or, in the hotter climates, 
twice a day, the cavity fills with the sap from the plant, which 
is taken out and fermented by the addition of some already- 
fermented pulque, and the process is continued until the plant 
ceases to yield a further supply. The liquor obtained is at first 
of a thick white colour, and is at all times very intoxicating. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg also states that the colour of pulque is 
whitish, like that of whey,"" and it is, therefore, evident that, in 
its colour and general appearance, as well as in its fermentation 
and its intoxicating quality, it closely resembles the koumiss, or 
"lo," and no better tenn than this could be found for it in 
Chinese. 

That koumiss, or some other intoxicating liquor, was used 
in Fu-sang, is indicated by that clause of the account in which 
it is stated that the people of the country feasted and dranh* at 
the great assemblies which they held to pass judgment upon 
criminals of a high rank. 

The question instantly arises, however, " If this was the arti- 
cle to which Hwui Shan referred, why did he say that it was 
made from milk ? " The answer to this query is, that the Mexi- 
cans applied the term milk to the sap of the century-plant, or 
rather designated both articles by a common term, which was 
originally the name of the sap. 

Milk, in the Mexican or Aztec language, is called " memeyal- 

* See character No. 182, in chapter xvi, p. 276. 



398 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

lotl." ''"' The last part, " yallotl," is elsewhere spelled "yollotl,""* 
or " yullotli," '^"^ and means the heart, the life, or, in ease of a 
plant, the sap, the juice. The syllable "me" is, as is the ease in 
the word Mexico, from metl, a century-plant, or agave ; and the 
reduplicated form, meme, indicates the plural."*^' The whole word 
therefore means " century-plants' sap," 

Powers states that it *°*' is a singular fact that the Indians 
generally have no word for " milk," They never see it, for they 
never extract it from any animal, because that would seem to 
them a kind of sacrilege or robbery of the young. Hence, an 
Indian frequently sees this article for the first time among civil- 
ized people, and adopts the Spanish word for it. 

The confusion existing in the Aztec language between the 
name for milk (i, e,, the natural food of young children) and the 
sap of the century-plant is shown by the following quotation 
from Bancroft : ^'^'^ 

" The children were given to Xolotl to bring up, and he fed 
them on the juice of the maguey : literally, in the earliest copy 
of the myth that I have seen, the tnilh of the thistle, 'la leche de 
cardo,' which term has been repeated blindly, and apparently 
without any idea of its meaning, by tlie various writers that 
have followed. The old authorities, however, and especially 
Mendieta, from whom the legend is taken, were in the habit of 
calling the maguey a thistle ; * and, indeed, the tremendous 
prickles of the Mexican plant may lay good claim to the 'N^emo 
me im^noie lacessit ' of the Scottish emblem." 

Thomas, also, speaking of "pellets of milh,'''' which were 
burnt before a certain idol in Yucatan, says '.^^"^^ "By the term 
' milk,' as here used, is meant the milky juice of some plant." 

The same confusion between sap and milk exists in other 
American languages ; as, for instance, in the Chippeway (or Ojib- 
beway), in which milk is called^"" "the sap of the breast,""®" 
and wine is called ^*^ "grape-milk." 

The Chinese also occasionally use the word milk in a figura- 
tive sense, as in the compounds " milk-gold," '^^^ for liquid gold 
used in painting ; " bamboo-milk," for tabasheer ; and " milky 

* " Maguey is the thistle from which they extract honey," Mendieta, " Ilist. 
Ecles.," p. 110. " Mdl is a tree or thistle which, in the language of the islands, 
is called maguey,^'' Motolinia, " Hist, de los Ind.," in Icazbalceta, " Col. de Doc," 
tome i, p, 243. 



THE rU-SANG TREE AND THE EED PEARS. 399 

perfume," for olibanum or incense : but they probably do not 
use it any more freely in this figurative sense than it is so em- 
ployed in English. 

The foregoing explanations appear to remove all material 
difficulties in Ilwui Shan's account, as far as it is quoted in this 
chapter, and the statements which are copied from other authors 
prove that if he had gone to Mexico he would there have found 
a country deriving its name from a remarkable plant, whose 
first shoots were like those of the bamboo, and which were 
edible ; that thread, clothing, and two varieties of cloth were 
prepared from its fiber, and that paper was also made from it ; 
and, finally, that a species of red pear was found in the land, 
which it was the custom to preserve in such a manner that it 
served as an article of food throughout the year. There is no 
other country in the world as to which all of these statements are 
true, and there therefore seems no escape from the conviction 
that Hwui Shan either visited Mexico himself, or else derived 
his information from some one who had been in that country. 

This chapter will be concluded with an account of the charac- 
ters used by the Chinese in writing descriptions of Fu-sang, or 
of the fu-sang tree, and with a reference to Chinese traditions 
regarding the existence of a " tree " having the most striking 
peculiarities of the century-plant ; traditions which may be 
founded upon the verbal statements of Hwui Shan, which would 
naturally be fuller and more complete than those embodied in 
the official record. 

The name fu-sang is usually written in Chinese with the two 
characters ^ ^, of which the first means "to assist, to sup- 
port, to defend " ; and the second indicates the mulberr)^ It is 
probable that the characters are used only as phonetics, but there 
is a possibility that their signification was borne in mind and 
that the name was intended to mean ''the useful mulberry," or 
" the defensive mulberry " ; the term " mulberry " being applied 
to the plant on account of the similarity between the uses made 
of its fiber and those to which that of the paper-mulberry was 
applied. As to the appropriateness of the term "useful," as 
applied to the agave, there can be no question ; and if the first 
character is considered to mean "defensive," or "defending," 
rather than " useful," this would also be approj^riate, as it was, 
and still is, a custom in Mexico to use the agaves as a defensive 

/ 
/ 



4:00 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

hedge ; ""* their strong and numerous spines rendering it impos- 
sible for animals, or men, to force their way through it. 

In some cases the character ^^, which is also pronounced fu, 
is used instead of the first of the two given on the last page.'''" 

In one instance the character |^, su, is used instead of ^, sang. 
This is in the phrase, ^J W ife i^» shan yiu fu-su, which Pro- 
fessor Williams translates, "the hills produce mulberries." The 
first two characters mean, " the hills produce " (or " the island 
produces "), and the term " mulberries " must therefore be his 
translation of the last two characters. He adds the statement 
that this ancient name fu-su is probably the same as fu-sang. 
The last character, su, is composed of a " plant," and " to revive," 
and means, " to resuscitate, to revive as when wilted, or from 
apparent death, to breathe again, to rise from the dead." The 
compound fu-su might therefore be translated, "the useful res- 
urrection-plant," or " the useful plant that rises again when ap- 
parently dead." 

This definition might well be applied to the century-plant, 
for it reproduces itself spontaneously.*'"' It perishes after efllo- 
rescence,^^" but an infinity of shoots then spring from the decay- 
ing roots, and no plant multiplies with greater facility.'*' 

The character %^, su, the phonetic of the word j^, su, men- 
tioned above, is, on account of its meaning, used for writing 
the last syllable of the name Jesus (Je-su).'**** 

The character ^, sang, is sometimes decomposed into its two 
parts, and written ^.^ /fc, JOH muh, " the joh tree," which Pro- 
fessor Williams describes ^'^ as a " divine, self-existing tree, 
which grows in Fu-sang," and it can be nothing else than another 
term for the fu-sang tree. 

We find in the Chinese dictionaries^^"' the character j|[[g, nih 
(composed of a tree and a large wine-jar), which is described as " a 
fabulous tree, said to be a thousand feet high ; it flowers once in 
a millennium, and perfects its fruit in nine more." This charac- 
ter, and the description, seem to have grown from some exag- 
geration of the peculiarities of the agave, which is a tree, or 
plant which fills a large wine-jar with its sap ; which towers 
above alP^^ surrounding plants, and which, although it does not 
require either a millennium to develop its blossoms (as the Chi- 
nese legend has it), or a century ^^" (as our own popular tradi- 
tions have it — hence the common name of "century-plant"), 



THE Ftl-SANG TREE AND THE RED PEARS. 401 

still does not blossom for quite a number of years — the exact time 
of flowering varying with localities and climate."^" 

Hepburn '^" gives a word or phrase, which in Japanese is 
pronounced Udonge, and in Chinese yiu-t'an-hwa, the charac- 
ters meaning, " a great cloud of blossoms," which he defines as 
the name of a fabulous flower, said to bloom but once in a thou- 
sand years. Here again a tradition seems to have been pre- 
served of some description that Hwui Shan gave of the century- 
plant, for its flowering-stalk rises to the height of forty feet or 
upward, and throws out branches on every side, like those of a 
candelabrum, so as to form a kind of pyramid, each branch sup- 
porting a cluster of flowers, greenish-red ^^" (in some species) or 
yellow ^^' (in others). It is therefore evident that no plant better 
deserves the appellation of " a great cloud of blossoms." 

The Chinese call the prickly-pear "^^ \^\ \ ^, sien-jan-ciiang, 
"the palm of the fairy people's hand."^^"" The first character, 
which is translated " fairy," is composed of a man and a mountain, 
or island, and hence may have originally meant the inhabitant of 
some mountain, island, or region beyond the sea. Many of the 
Chinese legends called fairy stories relate to such a region, and 
it is just possible that they knew that the prickly-pear was a na- 
tive of such a trans-oceanic land. 

In Eitel's Chinese Dictionary '"^ I very unexpectedly came 
upon the following definition : " ^-j-^^, Fu, in the phrase, *p ^, 
Fu-SANG : a divine tree found in the East (Japan) ; a tree 
{Agave Ghinensis) found in Corea." 

It is evident that the location of the fu-sai^g tree in Jaj^an, 
in the first part of the definition, is founded uj^on the opinion, 
enunciated by Klaproth, that the country of Fu-sang must have 
been situated in Japan. But how does Eitel come to describe 
the term as being applicable to a species of agave ? The agaves 
are all natives of America, and it does not seem possible that, if 
they had ever been introduced into Corea, they could have sur- 
vived for any length of time in so cold a country. Professor 
Gray informs me that botanists do not know of any plant or tree 
called the Agave Ghinensis, or Agave Sinensis, and that he has 
every reason to believe that no species of agave exist in that coun- 
try. Mr. Yu Kill Clum, a gentleman connected with the Corean 
embassy, who remained in this country after the other members 
had returned home, was shown a picture of the agave, when he 
26 



402 AN" INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

said that no such plant was to be found in Corea, and also took 
occasion to say that the statements of those who attempted to 
locate Fu-SANG in Corea or Japan were false. 

I am, therefore, uncertain as to the authority which Mr. Eitel 
had for saying that the term fu-sang was applied to a species of 
agave growing in Corea ; but it is certainly strange that of all 
the plants in the world he should have named the one described 
by Hwui Shan. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE LANGUAGE OP FU-SANG. 

Peculiarities of the Chinese language — Difficulty of indicating pronunciation of for- 
eign words — Examples — Change in sound of Chinese characters — The pisang 
or banana tree — Names of countries terminated with kwoh — The character 
SANG — The character fu — The most distant countries at the four points of 
the compass distinguished by names beginning with fu — Mexican dialects — 
Fn-SANG-KWOH and Me-shi-co — The title of the king — Montezuma's title — Ti- 
tle of the noblemen of the first rank — The Mexican Tecuhtli, or Teule — The 
Petty T01-LU — The Nah-to-sha, or Tlatoque — The title lower than that of 
Tecuhtli — Its meaning — Transcription of foreign words by characters indi- 
cating both the meaning and the sound — To-p'cr-TA'oes, or tomatoes — The 
grape-vine — The tree of stone — A Mexican pun — Danger of being misled 
by accidental or fancied resemblance. 

Ix the preceding chapters the f u-sang tree has been identified 
with the agave, and the country of Fu-sang with Mexico, and the 
question will naturally arise, why the term " Fu-sang " should 
have been used as the transcription or translation of the word 
" Mexico." 

Before attempting to answer this question, it will be neces- 
sary to examine some of the peculiarities of the Chinese lan- 
guage, and of the transliterations which it adopts for other for- 
eign proper names. 

On this point the testimony is unanimous, that '^^ it is as im- 
possible for the Chinese to render the correct pronunciation of 
words of other languages by their hieroglyphs as it is to indi- 
cate the exact pronunciation of Chinese characters by European 
spelling. One will find, in the different manuals for learning 
the Chinese language, the most detailed directions for pronounc- 
ing Chinese characters. In Romanizing Chinese sounds, not only 
all European letters and ciphers are laid under contribution, but, 
besides this, the letters are marked with strokes, crotchets, ac- 



404: 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



cents, etc. This is a vain trouble. No Chinese will understand 
the words pronounced by Europeans according to these rules. 

According to Crawfurd,'"*' the articulation or pronunciation 
of the Chinese is so imperfect, and so utterly unlike that of all 
the rest of mankind, that it is only by mere accident that they 
ever pronounce a foreign word rightly. Professor Williams says, 
in reference to this subject : ^^^^ " If it is difficult for us to ex- 
press their [the Chinese] sounds by Roman letters, it is still 
stranger for the Chinese to write English words. For instance, 
* baptize,' in the Canton dialect, becomes pa-p'i-tai-sz' ; ' flannel ' 
becomes fat-lan-yin ; ' stairs ' becomes sz'-ta-sz ; * imj)reguable ' 
becomes im-pi-luk-na-pu-li, etc." So, also, in the transcription of 
Sanskrit words, " Aurva " becomes Yu-liu ; "^ " Kakshivat," I^ia- 
k'a ; "' " Udaye," Yau-to-i ; '" and " Visvamitra," Fl-she-po.'''' 

Max Miiller remarks that ^^'''^ " the Chinese alphabet was never 
intended to represent the sound of words. With such a system 
of writing it was possible to represent Chinese, but impossible 
to convey either the sound or the meaning of any other lan- 
guage. Every Sanskrit word, as transcribed by the Chinese Bud- 
dhists, is a riddle which no ingenuity is able to solve. Who could 
have guessed that Fo-to, or, more frequently, Fo, was meant 
for ' Buddha ' ? Ko-lo-heou-lo for ' Rahula,' the son of Buddha ? 
Po-lo-ndi for ' Benares ' ? Tcha-li for ' Kshattriya ' ? Siu-to-lo 
for ' Slidra ' ? Fan, or Fan-lan-mo, for ' Brahma ' ? " 

As instances of the difficulty of identifying foreign words 
which the Chinese have attempted to reproduce in their charac- 
ters, the following are given, as specimens of a much longer list 
which was prepared, but which it would be wearisome to insert 
at length : 



Foreign Word. 


Chinese Transcription. 


Foreign Word. 


Cliinese Transcription. 




Ngo-lo-sz.25n 

Tak-kat.n« 
i Ha-la-ho-lin, usu- 
•< ally abbreviated to 
( Ho-lin.^8' 

Pu-su-man.''®^ 

Tan-too-loo."'03 

Sz-me-li.«334 


France 


Fah-lan-si."" 


Tacul 


Macassar 

Barkoul 

Bokhara 

Constantinople . . 

Kashgar 

Azora 

Casa 


Bang-ka-sat.i"« 


Caracorum 

Mussulman (writ- 
ten by Plano- 
carpin " Bes- 
sermin ") 

Dentro 


Pa-le-kwan.'"'" 

P'u-hua.''" 

Ki-sze-da-ni.''" 

lia-she-ko-urh."'*' 

A-ko-lap.'o»3 

Kak-tsze.'oo^ 


^raddhavarma . . 

(Jrideva 

Atch^rya 


Che-la-t'o-po-niu.'^''^ 
Chi-li-ti-p'o."'2' 


Siberia 


Ngo-tche-li-ye.'*'* 





THE LANGUAGE OF FU-SANG. 405 

The last three words are from the Sanskrit, and some imper- 
fections in the transliteration might be expected, from the fact 
that the Sanskrit books from which the names were taken were 
translated fourteen centuries ago, and that the j^owers of the 
Chinese characters used to represent the syllables of these words 
have changed in the mean time.'"^ 

The other words in the table are, however, of comparatively 
recent adoption, and show how imperfectly, even when they are 
first chosen, the Chinese characters represent the sounds which 
they are intended to transcribe. When to this original imperfec- 
tion is added that produced by the fact that, since the days of 
Hwui Shan, the sounds attached to the characters have been in a 
state of slow but constant flux,^^^' it may be admitted that the 
present sounds, fu-sang, of the characters ^ ^ may be very far 
from representing the pronunciation of the foreign word which 
they were so long ago chosen to express. 

As a further illustration of the changes produced in the 
sound of the Chinese characters in the course of centuries, it may 
be noticed that Sanskrit syllables, pronounced in all of the follow- 
ing ways, i. e., 9ya, 96, 9a, 91, chya, 9va, dja, djha, dha, dya, 
dhya, and tcha,**^^ were, some fourteen or fifteen centuries ago, 
transcribed by Chinese characters all of which are now pronounced 
CHE (the ch like the English sh). 

The foregoing statements illustrate the extreme difficulty of 
attempting to decide with certainty as to the sounds which the 
characters now pronounced fu-sang were originally intended to 
represent. 

My own opinion is that, long before the Christian era, the 
Chinese had obtained some imperfect knowledge of the Philippine 
Islands, or some of the neighbouring islands, upon which the plan- 
tain, or banana (called in Malay -*"" the pisang^^^''), grew, and that 
there were then numerous popular stories and traditions regard- 
ing this " Land of the Pisang^'' and of the wonderful pisang-tree 
to be found upon it, far away to the east or southeast, and that 
the characters ^ ^, fu-sang, the "useful mulberry," or f^ ^, 
FU-SAXG, the "supernatural mulbery," or f^^ ^, fu-sang, the 
"distant mulberry-tree," were adopted as both describing the 
tree and transcribing its name. My reasons for this opinion will 
be given in a following chapter. For the present, I will merely 
say that if, when Hwui Shan reached China, from a distant 



406 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

eastern country, which derived its name from a wonderful plant 
or tree growing in it, the fact was that the Chinese already had 
a number of vague traditions regarding a land situated in the 
east and taking its name from a remarkable tree, they would 
be very likely to consider the two countries as identical ; and if 
the characters which they had adopted for expressing the name 
of this land, already vaguely known, could, by any possibility, 
be considered as representing the sound of the name of the 
country mentioned by Hwui Shan, the likelihood that they would 
consider the two regions as one and the same, and therefore 
use for the name of the newly discovered land the characters 
already applied to the other eastern country, would be much in- 
creased. 

Absurd as it may appear at first sight, I think it very prob- 
able that the Chinese, having the characters Fu-sang, already 
well known as the name of an eastern country, took these charac- 
ters, with the addition of ^, kwoh,''^^^ meaning country, and 
used them to transcribe the name " Mexico " of the country that 
had been visited by Hwui Shan. 

It should first be mentioned that in Chinese the names of coun- 
tries are usually followed by this word kwoh, or, as it is some- 
times written, kwo, " kingdom." ^^"* Mbi kwoh, |^ ^ (the 
Fertile or Beautiful Country), is used as the name of the United 
States of America,^^^^ and is unquestionably an attempt to trans- 
literate the word "America," the character kwoh representing 
the final syllable "ca" of America. As the Chinese have no 
characters which have the sound either of "a" or "ri," both 
these syllables have been omitted. 

Great Britain ^^^^ is called ;^ "^ P, Ta-ying-kwoh (the Great 
YiNG Land, or the Great Excellent Country). Here the ;^, ta, 
" Great," is taken from the first word of the name Great Britain. 
YmG-KWOH represents " England," the syllable ting being in- 
tended for the " Eng " of England, and the last syllable, " land," 
being translated by kwoh. 

The character |^, kwoh, country, being so near, both in sound 
and meaning, to the terminal syllable " co " (meaning at, in, place, 
or region) of " Mexico," it is of all the characters in the Chinese 
language the one which would most likely be chosen to transcribe 
that syllable. 

There is, therefore, no difficulty, so far as the final syllable is 



THE LAISTGUAGE OF FU-SANG. 407 

concerned, in believing that Fc-sang-kwoh may have been used 
by the Chinese as the transcription of Me-xi-co. 

Now, as to the middle syllable : this, as we have already seen, 
was pronounced by the Mexicans " shi." Can the character M, 
now pronounced sang, have ever been used to represent this 
sound ? In some dialects of the Chinese, the character has prob- 
ably been pronounced substantially as it now is, for two thousand 
years or more ; but in other dialects the sound has, as probably, 
been quite different. This character is now usually pronounced 
so by the Japanese ; but Professor Williams (see Chapter XIV 
of this book) says that the Japanese pronunciation of Fu-sang- 
KwoH is Fu-SHi-KOKU. Here the middle syllable is pronounced 
exactly as the Mexicans enunciated the corresponding syllable 
of the name of their country. His authority for this pronun- 
ciation is not stated, but there are other evidences that the 
character was sometimes given nearly this sound. 

It may be noted that the use of a character having a terminal 
nasal is not always a proof that the transcribed syllable has such 
a nasal. M. Julien says ^^'' that kiang-lang was written for the 
Sanskrit kdla, and t oukg-loung-mo for the Sanskrit droicma. 
In this last word, the letters ng must be dropped, leaving t ou- 
Lou-MO, which was as near as the Chinese seemed able to come 
to drouina. So, too, we find '^^^ Man-lah-kia written for Ma- 
lacca, and Meng-kia-sah for Macassar. 

It has already been stated * that, when referring to the fu- 
sang tree, the character ^ is sometimes decomposed into its two 
parts and ''"* written §^ •^, " the joh tree." The first part is 
the "phonetic" of the character ^, and is supposed to give to 
it its sound. It is seen, however, that, when written separately, 
the character is pronounced joh (j given the French pronuncia- 
tion, like zh), and not sang. Attention was also called, in the 
same connection, to the fact that a character pronounced su is 
sometimes substituted for sang. 

The Sanskrit word sramana, applied to a Buddhist priest, is 
not only written in Chinese with characters pronounced sha-m an, 
but also ^ p% SANG-MAN,^^^'' and f| Pf , shi-man.^'" Here the 
character ^, sang, is used as the equivalent of other characters 
pronounced sha and shi. 

* See page 400. 



408 Ai^ INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

In view of the illustrations already given of the imperfection 
veith which Chinese characters frequently represent the sounds 
which they are intended to transcribe, is it beyond the bounds 
of possibility that the character usually pronounced sang, but 
fluctuating in sound at different times or in different dialects 
toward so, su, shi, sha or zhoii, may have been considered by 
the Chinese as a sufficiently good representative of the xi (or 
shi) of Me-xi-co ? 

As to the first syllable, M. de Paravey claims that, as a coun- 
try in the extreme north was known as Fu-yu {^ f^,),"^" one in 
the extreme south as Fu-nan (^ 1^),^^^^ and one in the extreme 
west as Fu-LiN (fjjj ^),^^^" the Chinese adopted this fourth fu, 
in Fu-SANG, as being properly expressive of a country at the ex- 
treme east. 

In the Chinese San-fuh-tsi,*^^' a term applied to a kingdom 
in the island of Sumatra, and which is probably intended to rep- 
resent the same name for which we have adopted the word 
" Sumatra," the Chinese character fuh seems to be equivalent to 
our syllable " ma." M. Julien finds the character ^, fu, written 
for the Sanskrit bhtl in Subh^ti, and for bo in Bodhisattva.'®'^^ 
He also finds other characters, now pronounced fu, written ior pa 
in Vachpa,'^^* and for vS in Vetala,'^" as well as for pu and pU. 

It is therefore evident that, of the characters now pronounced 
Fu-SANG-KWOH, the first may have been intended to represent any 
of the sounds fu, fu, pu, pu, bo, bhu, pa, or ve ; the second to 
represent sang, so, su, shi, sha, or zhoh ; and the third to rep- 
resent KWOH, Kwo, or CO. 

Now, let it be borne in mind that there have undoubtedly 
been some changes in the sound of Mexican words during the 
last fourteen centuries ; that different dialects varied in their 
pronunciation ; and that one language is mentioned by Busch- 
raann as closely connected with the Mexican, which substituted 
V for the Mexican m, and which would therefore pronounce 
" Me-shi-co " as " Ve-shi-co." 

With this allowance, is it impossible that the characters now 
pronounced Fu-sang-kwoh, and which at one time, or in some 
particular dialect, may have been pronounced Pa-sha-co or Ve- 
SHi-co, may have been taken as the representatives of the Aztec 
word "Me-shi-co," or of a possible variant "Ve-shi-co"? 

All this is not given as absolutely proving that the term Fu- 



THE LANGUAGE OF FU-SANG. 409 

SANG-KWOH was usGcl f or " Mexico," but merely as indicating that 
the connection is not as distant as it appears at first sight, and 
that any argument drawn from the apparent dissimilarity of the 
words can have but little weight. 

My own opinion is, as already stated, that when Hwui Shan 
related his adventures to the Chinese, and told that this distant 
eastern land derived its name of " Me-shi-co " from a remarkable 
" tree " growing there, they immediately inferred that the coun- 
try was the same of which they had before heard as Fu-sang- 
KWOH ; believing that the possible sounds of these characters 
were near enough to those of the name of the country visited by 
him to make it probable (when other circumstances were taken 
into consideration) that the country was the same. 

Having thus referred to the subject of language, let us now 
consider that portion of Hwui Shan's story in which he gives a 
number of the words of the language used in the country which 
he visited. 

IV. — The title of the king of the country is "thb 

CHIEF OF THE MULTITUDES." ThE NOBLEMEN OF THE FIRST 
RANK ARE CALLED " TUI-LU " ; THOSE OF THE SECOND RANK, " PET- 
TY TUI-LU " ; AND THOSE OF THE THIRD RANK, " NAH TO-SHA." 

The first clause is translated by others, "The king is called 
'noble Y-chi,'' ' Y-khi,' ' Yit-Mii,' ' I-chi,' ' I-H; ' Y-kl,' or 
' Yueh-Jci'"; and if it were not for the translation by de Rosny 
of the Japanese form of the story, in which he says, "They 
give to their king the name of KiJci-zin, that is to say, * the most 
honourable inan^ " I should have felt more hesitation about ren- 
dering the title as " Chief of the Multitudes." It appears to me 
that the two characters should have been reversed, so as to read, 
" K'l-YiH," instead of " Yih-k'i," if this were the meaning ; but a 
number of educated Chinamen, whom I have consulted on the 
subject, all concur in the statements that the characters as they 
stand mean " the chief of the multitudes," and can have no other 
meaning, and that, while they are not quite sure whether the 
characters should be translated or transliterated, they are of the 
opinion that it was not the intention to use them merely as 
phonetics, and they therefore think that they should be trans- 
lated as above. Moreover, the meanings of the characters, 
taken separately, are so exactly those of the words of which the 
title of the Mexican ruler was composed, that I can not doubt 



410 AN INGLORIOUS OOLXJMBUS. 

that the characters were intended by Hwui Shan as its transla- 
tion. The firct character, yih, ^, means, " one, bent, the first " 
(Williams's Dictionary, p. 1096), and the second, k'i, j^, " full, 
abundant, very, large, numerous, multitudes, a crowd of people" 
(Williams's Dictionary, p. 345). Medhurst '*'*' also gives the mean- 
ing " great." This character is composed of a city, or region, 
and to worship, and was probably first adopted as a representa- 
tion of the assembly of the people, when they gathered, once a 
year, to witness the public worship of the Supreme God by the 
emperor. Hence its first meaning would be, "the people, the 
multitude," from which the meanings " numerous," " abundant," 
" full," " large," and " great " would subsequently be evolved. 
In Hwui Shan's time the word may have been in the first stage, 
and have meant distinctively " the people." 

The title of the Mexican emperor is seldom mentioned by 
historians, and is in fact so rarely referred to, that some authori- 
ties even state that the Mexican language has no word for em- 
peror.^"® Nevertheless there are occasional references to Monte- 
zuma's title, which is given as " Chief of Men," '°' " Tlaca-tecuh- 
tli." "* This title is composed of " tlaca-tl," a man, or, in the 
plural, men or people, and " tecuhtli," the title which will be next 
considered, and which is equivalent to "lord" or "chief." The 
compound therefore means " Lord of Men " or " Chief of the 
People." 

Sebastian Ramerez de Fuenleal, Bishop of San Domingo, in 
a letter to the Spanish empress,"^® dated Mexico, November 3, 
1532, said : " Montezuma bore the title of Tecatecle Tetuan Intla- 
catl, and this is the title which they also give to your majesties ; 
its meaning being ' Wise and Powerful Lord.' " The good bishop 
evidently knew but little of the Mexican language. The first 
word is a compound of " teca," meaning nation, tribe, or people,* 
and " tecle," which is one of the numerous variations **'^ of the 
title given in the last paragraph as "Tecuhtli," meaning lord"'' 
or chief. No such word as tetuan is found in the Aztec diction- 
aries, but teuan is defined as " our," and this is probably the 
word meant. " Intlacatl " is a compound of " in," nearly equiv- 
alent to the English " the," and " tlacatl," " man or people." Here 
the meaning is substantially the same as that of the title given 

* The names of most of the Mexican tribes end in " teca," or its abbreviation, 
" tec," as, for instance, the " Az-tecas " or Aztecs, the " Tol-tccas " or Toltecs. 



TEE LANGUAGE OF FU-SANG. 411 

in the last paragraph, " chief " and " people " being found in both, 
the whole meaning literally, " the Nation's Lord of our People." 

Let us now examine the statement of Hwui Shan, that the 
noblemen of the first rank are called Tui-lu, %^J^. The first 
character is not used in transcribing Sanskrit words, but it does 
not seem to have been subject to much, if any, fluctuation in 
sound. The second character is used to rej)resent the Sanskrit 
syllables Id, ro, ru, lu, riX and Iri, '"' and when written with a 
small square (or *' mouth ") at the left — which does not affect its 
sound — for Iri, ro,^^^ ru, and ril.^^^^ 

Was there any such title as this in existence among the Mexi- 
cans ? Bancroft says : '^* " There were several military orders 
and titles, which were bestowed upon distinguished soldiers for 
services in the field or the council. There was one, the member- 
ship of which was confined to the nobility ; this was the cele- 
brated and knightly order of the Tecuhtli. To obtain this rank 
it was necessary to be of noble birth, to have given proof in sev- 
eral battles of the utmost courage, to have arrived at a certain 
age, and to have sufiicient wealth to support the enormous ex- 
penses incurred by members of the order." 

In another place "* he states that the rank of Tecuhtli was the 
highest honour that a prince or soldier could acquire. 

Molina"'' and Biondelli''' spell the word " Tecutli "—the 
first defining it " a cavalier or chief," and the second, " a warrior, 
a prince, a chief." Morgan gives the form "Teuchtli."''^* 01- 
mos,"" Buschmann, ^^^ and Clavigero '"^ use the form "Teuctli." 
Bancroft also uses it in the compound Mictlan-teuctli, Lord of 
Hades.^"^ Olmos "" explains this change of spelling or pronun- 
ciation by saying that sometimes, when u follows after c, the it 
is made liquid, and, although it is not lost in the written word, it 
seems to be lost in the pronunciation, or at least is but slightly 
sounded, and the c remains in the pronunciation with the pre- 
ceding vowel. As to the rank of these noblemen, Clavigero says 
that the Teuctli took precedency of all others in the senate as 
well in sitting as in voting ; '"" and Buschmann says '"^ that 
Tecutli, or Teuctli, is the Mexican word for what we are accus- 
tomed to call a cazique, prince, chief, chieftain, a lord in general, 
or a high noble. In the name of Ometochtli, one of the numerous 
Nahua gods of wine,*"* the part " tochtli," which by itself means 
rabbit, is evidently a variant of this title. 



412 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The name of the general in command of the army first met 
by Cortez is given as Teutile,"^' Teuhtlile, "^^ or Teudile.^'" 
Here again we have the same title, which, as in other cases, took 
the place of the name. ^"^ If proof is needed, it is found in the 
fact that the name of his companion or lieutenant is given as 
Pilpatoe, ^^*^ which is evidently a title also : from PilU, noble,^" 
and Patio, precious. In a letter written by Nicholas DeWitt, in 
1554, " Pipiltic " is named as one of the titles given to noble- 
men.'-'"' The form " Tecle " has already been mentioned, and this 
is stated to be an older form than the preceding."* Zurita gives 
the form " Teutley," ''* and Arenas, Teuhtli." Gallatin gives the 
name of the god, before referred to, as Houieteuli,^*^^ and de 
Zumarraga ■'^"' and the auditor Salmeron^^^* and his colleagues 
use the form " Teule." It will be seen that these various forms 
differ as much between themselves as Hwui Shan's form Tui-lu 
differs from any of them ; and it seems beyond all reasonable 
doubt that he intended to transcribe the title given above. 

In the notes of M. the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, 
reproduced in Chapter XII of the present work, he states that one 
of the Chinese texts gives this title as " Great Tui-ln " instead of 
merely "Tui-lu." The use of a word, meaning ** great" or 
" noble," in connection with a title expressing elevated rank, is 
common in all countries. As to its use in Mexico, Solis mentions 
that,^''^* when approaching Montezuma, his subjects entered into 
his presence barefooted, and made three reverences without rais- 
ing their eyes from the earth — saying at the first, " lord ! " at the 
second, " my lord ! " and at the third, " great lord ! " 

The Chinese account continues that the noblemen of the 
second rank were called "Petty Tui-lu." 

I have not found any case in which a word meaning " petty " 
is attached to the title Teuctli. I find in Molina, however,"'* the 
forms Tlatoca-tepito, a petty ruler or king, and Tlatoca-fontli, 
a petty king or lord. In these compounds Tlatoca is the title 
next referred to, tepito means "little, small," "'*'' and tontU in- 
dicates diminution,"^* littleness, depreciation, or humiliation."^' 
It is therefore evident that the Mexicans were accustomed to 
divide at least one of their ranks of nobility into two classes, the 
less powerful being indicated by attaching to the title a word 
meaning "little" or "petty." 

Ilwui Shan says that the nobles of the third rank are called 



THE LANGUAGE OF FU-SANG. 413 

N"ah-to-sha. This is the Mexican title referred to in the last 
paragraph, which takes the forms Tlatocayo,'^^^ Tlatoani/"'^ or, in 
the plural, Tlatoque.'^^^ 

As to the use of nah for the syllable " Tla " : it should be re- 
membered that the Chinese language has no word in which one 
consonant is followed by another without the interposition of a 
vowel, and it is therefore absolutely powerless to express such a 
sound as " Tla." La would seem the most likely form to use for 
it ; but I and n are so regularly interchanged with each other, in 
the various Chinese dialects, that it is not strange that in this 
case, as in many others, na should be used for la. In Med- 
hurst's Dictionary,'*'^ a large number of words will be found 
written with an initial I and pronounced with ??, or written with 
n and pronounced with I. In " Smith's Vocabulary of Proper 
Names" we are told, under the heading lui,-^^" "For words 
commencing with this character, see nui, the more correct 
word." 

In transcribing Sanskrit words, characters pronounced na, 
NiE; and NO are used to represent the Sanskrit syllable da (with 
the cerebral c?) and also the syllable da (with the dental d)}^"^ 

Bancroft says, in relation to the title : ^" " The nobles of 
Mexico, and of the other Nahua nations, were divided into 
several classes, each having its own peculiar privileges and 
badges of rank. The distinctions that existed between the vari- 
ous grades and their titles are not, however, clearly defined. 
The title of Tlatoani was the highest and most respected ; it 
signified an absolute and sovereign power, an hereditary and 
divine right to govern. The kings and the great feudatory lords, 
who were governors of provinces, and could prove their princely 
descent and the ancient independence of their families, belonged 
to this order." 

Although Bancroft seems to be uncertain as to the exact na- 
ture of the distinction between various ranks, there is no ques- 
tion that this title, Tlatoani, Tlatoca, or Tlatocayo, was a lower 
title than that of Teuctli. 

Buschmann says in regard to it : ''"' " Tlatoani is the parti- 
ciple, present, active, of ^7oa, or tlatoa, to speak.* It expresses, 

* Tlatoa is derived from itoa^ " to speak," with the prefix tJa^ a species of 
pronoun, meaning " it " or " something." It therefore means, " to speali something 
of importance — something to which attention should be paid," i. e., " to command." 



4l4r AIT INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

first, in reality, ' speaker ' ; second, however, and chiefly, ' great 
lord, nobleman, governor, prince, cazique.' " 

The word is really equivalent to the English title *' Command- 
er." The fundamental radical of the word is the syllable to (from 
itoa^ to speak), and this syllable is represented in Chinese by the 
character PjlJ, to, also meaning to speak. There are a great num- 
ber of other Chinese characters pronounced to, but this particu- 
lar one was chosen because of its coincidence in meaning as well 
as in sound with the syllable which it was to represent. 

This is in accordance with the usual custom of the Chinese, 
who, in transcribing foreign words, often seek for meanings, 
allusions, fortuitous coincidences, and plays of words.'^ Thus, 
for the word, "opium," they use characters pronounced ya- 
piEN ^^''^ (which is as near as they can come to the sound of the 
word), and meaning " black flakes." For the name of the Ganges 
(or Gunga) they use the characters hang-ho,^^** which, like the 
original word, mean " the ceaseless river." So they transcribe 
the word " Turk " *^^ wnth the characters t'iu-kiue, meaning 
" insolent dogs." 

The last syllable of the words Tlatoca, Tlatocayo, or Tlatoque 
is represented by a character pronounced sha, the sounds k and 
SH being in this case, as in many others, interchanged. 

Another phrase is used by Hwui Shan in which I think that 
I detect an attempt to transcribe a Mexican word. This is the 
statement that — 

V. — They have T0-p'u-T*A0-es in that place. 

The characters to-pV-t'ao I think to be intended for the 
Mexican word"^^ which we have adopted as the name of the 
tomato. 

The translators have had much difficulty with this phrase, 
rendering it : " They have the iris and peaches in abundance " ; 
" There are also many vines " ; " In addition there are many 
apples and reeds, mats being made from the last " ; " There are 
many grapes " ; and " Water-rushes and peaches are common." 

The exact meaning of the characters, to-p'u-t'ao is " numer- 
ous reed-peaches," or "many reeds and peaches." 

A compound,"" pronounced p'u-t'ao, is used as the name of 
the grape-vine by the Chinese,'™ but it is written with different 

The suffix ni, or cayo^ turns the verb into a noun, precisely as our suffix " er " 
turns " command " into " commander." 



THE LANGUAGE OF FU-SANG. 415 

characters from those used in the text. Klaproth claims that the 
name was formerly written with the characters given in this 
place, but I have not been able to find any other authority for 
the statement. Beal seems to think that the p'u-t'ao may have 
been the sugar-cane. °" 

Reeds or rushes are found in great numbers along the water- 
courses of Mexico, and Tulan, the capital of the Toltecs, took its 
name from the "tules,"or reeds, in its neighbourhood. This 
Aztec word has passed into the English language, and the reeds 
growing in the marshy lands of California are now universally 
called "tules." The Mexicans wove the mats of which their 
beds were made from these reeds, or tales."'' 

The term " reed-peach " would have been particularly appli- 
cable to the tomato, as the straggling vine upon which it grows is 
somewhat analogous to a reed, and different compounds of the 
word "peach," with a modifying adjective, are, in Chinese, used 
to designate various soft, round fruits that are destitute of a 
kernel or stone. Thus the " fairy peach " is a poetical name for 
a fig,'*" the " divine peach " is a variety of orange, the " fragrant 
peach " is the lemon, and the " flossy blossoming peach " is the 
flower-bud of cotton. 

Bancroft refers '"' to the use made of the tomato by the Mexi- 
cans, and, in fact, even at the present day there are few of the 
characteristic dishes of the country of which it does not form a 
part. 

If the compound is decided to mean "grapes" or "grape- 
vines," it is equally true that they were found in the country. 
The fact that they were found in " Vinland," or New England, 
does not prove that they existed in Mexico, some four thousand 
miles distant. After finding, however, that grapes were indige- 
nous '^»Ho California,^"' Texas,'"" Arizona,**' New Mexico,'"" "^»*«s 
and Sonora,*'* and at Parras, in the state of Durango, Mexico,*^ I 
finally found several references to their existence throughout the 
land of Mexico, although it is evident that the fruit was not 
esteemed, and that little use was made of it. 

Prescott refers incidentally to the grape-vines in Mexico.-"" 
Acosta says : " In New Spain there are some vines which bear 
grapes, although no wine is made from them." *' Diaz states that, 
"'* " in the middle of August, in the year 1519, we left Sempoalla. 
We came the first day to Xalapa and then to Socochina, a well- 



410 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

kept place of difficult accessibility, -where there are a multitude 
of arbours of the grape-vines of this country." To this statement 
the translator adds the following note : 

"The grape-vine was certainly brought from Europe to 
the TVest Indies, yet it can not be doubted that the Spaniards 
had before found it growing wild in America." Oviedo, whose 
work, so far as it relates to the historical portion of natural his- 
tory, is of great value, says, explicitly : " These wild vines bear 
good, black grapes. I say good, for, considering that they are a 
wild growth, they well deserve that appellation. They are found 
throusrhout the whole West Indies, and I believe that all the 
vines now remaining there have descended from this wild stock." 

Finally, Clavigero gives the following account regarding 
them : '"'' 

" Grapes are not entirely lacking in this country. The places 
called Parras and Parral, in the diocese of New Biscay, were so 
named from the abundance of vines which were found there, of 
which many vineyards were made, which, to this day, yield good 
wine. In Mixteca there are two species of wild vine, native to 
that country : the one, in its shoots and in the figure of its leaves, 
resembles the common vine, and bears red grapes, which are large 
and covered by a hard skin, but which are of a sweet and agree- 
able taste, which would surely be improved by cultivation ; the 
grapes of the other vine are hard, large, and of a sour flavour, 
but they make a very good preserve." 

The Chinese account may possibly refer to grapes, but I can 
not help thinking that " tomatoes " is the true rendering. 

In Chapter XV attention was called to the fact that the Chi- 
nese have a legend of a tree of stone, called " the agate gem," "the 
green-jade-stone tree," or " the coral tree." This may possibly 
be founded upon Hwui Shan's account of the gems, which were 
most highly prized by the Mexicans, and which they called Chal- 
chiuitl,^^^^ or Chalchihiiitl.^^ These were green or bluish-green 
stones, resembling amethysts,^" emeralds,''^''* or turquoises,^" and 
probably very similar to the green-jade stone so highly prized in 
China. These were considered as valuable by the Mexicans as 
diamonds are by us,^'^' and when Montezuma wished to send to 
the ruler of Spain the most royal present which it was possible 
for him to give, he sent his general to Cortez with four of these 
stones, which were handed over with great solemnity as jewels 



THE LANGUAGE OF FU-SAXG. 417 

of inestimable value/'*^ and with the statement that he could 
not consent to part with them except to give them to so power- 
ful a monarch as the one to whom Cortez yielded obedience must 
be. Each stone was declared to be worth a load of gold ^" (i. e., 
the weight that a man could carry — some sixty pounds), or, 
according to some authorities, two loads.'^"^ Chalehlhuitl was 
one of the titles bestowed upon Quetzalcoatl, and it was the name 
given to Cortez,'^ by the Mexicans, who knew of no title that 
they could give him which would more fully express their sense 
of his superiority. 

This word is evidently composed of xalli (pronounced shcdli, 
and, after dropping the terminal U, scarcely distinguishable from 
chal), meaning sand or a sandy stone,"*' and xihuitl, a turquoise ; 
the compound meaning " the stone turquoise." It has already 
been explained, however, that xihuitl also means a plant. Hence 
Hwui Shan may have supposed the meaning of the appellation 
to be "the stony plant," and the Chinese legends may have 
grown from the accounts, carried to China by Hwui Shan, of 
the Mexican Chalchihuitl. 

It should be said, in concluding this philological jDortion of 
the subject, that, if it stood by itself, but little confidence could 
be placed in it. So many instances have occurred in which 
careful students have been misled by accidental or fancied re- 
semblances between words radically distinct, that great caution 
is necessary in pursuing the subject. 

Nevertheless, when taken in connection with the other proofs, 
given and to be given, of the truth of Hwui ShSn's statements, 
these philological coincidences seem to add to their number. 

If the Mexican language did not contain titles corresponding 
with the words found in the Chinese text, that circumstance 
would be a valid argument against the truth of the story. The 
words exist, however, and have been shown. 

Let any who may think the resemblance accidental or fancied, 

or to be the result of mere ingenuity, attempt to discover another 

language in the world in the words of which, denoting degrees 

of rank, any such resemblance to the titles named by Hwui Shan 

can be found, 
27 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 

The construction of the dwellings — Adobe walls — The " Casas Grandes " — Houses 
of planks — Lack of armour — Absence of fortifications — Literary characters — 
The pomp which surrounded the Aztec monarch — Musical instruments — The 
evanescence of Montezuma's pomp — Rulers accompanied by musical instru- 
ments — Tangaxoan — The king of Guatemala — The king of Quich6 — Homage 
to the Spaniards and to the Spanish priests — The long cattle-horns — The 
Chinese measure called a hdh — Animals of the New World erroneously des- 
ignated by the names of those of the Old World — Bisons — Their range — An 
extinct species — Its gigantic horns — The horns of the Rocky Mountain sheep — 
Use of horns by the Indians — Herds of tame deer — The lack of iron — The use 
of copper — Gold and silver not valued — Their markets — Barter — Customs at- 
tending courtship — Sprinkling and sweeping the ground as an act of homage 
— The customs of the Apaches — The fastened horse — The Coco-Maricopas — 
Serenades — Huts built in front of those of the parents — The length of the 
" year " — The punishment of criminals of high rank — The sweat-house, or 
estufa — Indian councils — Severe punishment of men of distinction — Custom 
in Darien — Punishment witnessed by Cortez — Smothering in ashes. 

The next statement to be examined relates to the method of 
building their dwellings : 

VI, — In CONSTRUCTING their houses they use planks, such 
as are generally used when building adobe walls. 

This passage has been variously translated : " The boards 
which are made from the fu-sang tree are employed in the con- 
struction of their houses," and " Their houses are made of 
planks," or "wooden planks" or "beams." It is to be noted 
that it does not say that the planks are made from the fu-sang 
tree, and also that the character used for the word " planks " is 
not the ordinary character ^, pan, composed of " wood," or " a 
tree," and the phonetic pan, but is ){Jj, pan, composed of this 
last-named phonetic and the radical meaning " a slice," " a piece." 
This character is not only used with the meaning " board " or 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 419 

" plank," but is employed specifically as the name of the small 
boards or pieces of planks which are used when constructing 
adobe or mud walls ; and it appears to have this meaning in our 
text. In China, according to Professor Williams, durable walls 
are made by pounding a compound of sifted gravel and lime, 
mixed with water, into a solid mass, between planks secured at 
the sides, and elevated as the wall rises. "^* Medhurst says that 
the Chinese in Hok-k6en generally build their walls of mud, 
which is pounded and beaten between two boards fastened 
together. 

As to the dwellings of the Mexicans : we are told that they 
varied with climate and locality, and that in treeless parts they 
were constructed of adobe or sun-dried bricks and stones.'^' 
Zamacois says that "®^ the houses of the wealthier classes were 
of adobe, but were well whitened, and the habitations of the 
greater part of the people were of clay hardened in the sun, and 
of earth. °^** The celebrated ruins in New Mexico, known as the 
" Casas Grandes," are of adobe, that is, the ordinary mud of the 
locality mixed with gravel.^" It is specially stated, however, 
that, according to appearances, the walls of these buildings were 
built in boxes (moulds) of different sizes.^'* Bancroft adds 
that ^'* the material, instead of being formed into small rectan- 
gular or brick-shaped blocks, as is customary in all Spanish- 
American countries to this day, seems in this aboriginal struct- 
ure to have been moulded — perhaps by means of wooden boxes 
— and dried where it was to remain in the walls. 

Bartlett states that,"' of the " Casas Grandes," near the Gila 
River, the exterior walls, as well as the division walls of the in- 
terior, are laid with large square blocks of mud, prepared for 
the purpose by pressing the material into large boxes about two 
feet in height and four feet long. "When the mud became suf- 
ficiently hardened, the case was moved along and again filled, and 
so on until the whole edifice was completed ; and, referring af- 
terward to the " Casas Grandes," in Chihuahua, Mexico, he says 
that '*^ they are built with large blocks of mud, or what the Mexi- 
cans call tapia, about twenty-two inches in thickness and three 
feet or more in length. In fact, the length of these blocks 
seems to vary, and their precise dimensions can not be traced, 
which leads to the belief that some kind of a case or box was 
used, into which the mud was placed, and that, as it dried, these 



420 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

cases were moved along. It is true tliey may have been first 
made in moulds or cases, and, after being dried, placed on the 
walls ; but the irregularity and want of uniformity in the length 
of these layers indicate that they were made on the walls them- 
selves. 

If it be considered that Hwui Shan intended to say that the 
houses were constructed of wooden planks, instead of by means 
of these movable boards, there is just a possibility (but it can 
not be called a probability) that such houses may at one time 
have been built. Ixtlilxochitl tells us, in his second " Relation," 
that at Tollantzinco " they [the Toltecs] constructed of planks 
a house large enough to accommodate the entire nation.""^ 

Other writers have referred to the planks made by the na- 
tives of Oregon and Washington Territory,'*^" for the construc- 
tion of their dwellings ; but this region is too far removed from 
Mexico to make it probable that the two places would be re- 
ferred to in the same account, as if they were only one coun- 
try. 

VII. — They have no citadels oe walled cities, . . . they 

HAVE NO military WEAPONS OR ARMOUR, AND THEY DO NOT WAGE 
WAR IN THAT KINGDOM. 

This duplication of a statement which was made in regard to 
Great Han, indicates that the explorer was questioned by the 
representative of the Chinese government as to the military 
qualities of the nations which he had visited. 

Dupaix says of the ruins of Central America : " The truth is 
that there can not be found in any quarter the least trace of an 
inclosure, of an adjoining defense of any kind, or even of exte- 
rior fortifications." '^^' 

When Mexico was first visited by the Spaniards, the natives 
wore an armour of quilted cotton, very similar to the quilted 
dress worn by the Tartars for the same purpose. The resem- 
blance is such that it seems not unreasonable to suppose that it 
may have been introduced by the party of Buddhist priests as a 
means of protecting their disciples from the arrows of their ene- 
mies. 

While the Aztecs were a ferocious and warlike people, it is 
well known that their predecessors, the Toltecs, were milder and 
gentler, and were not addicted to war. Landa and Herrera re- 
port that the nations of Yucatan learned the art of war from the 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUXTRY. 421 

Mexicans, having been an altogether peaceful people before the 
Nahua influence was brought to bear on them.^" 

It may be, however, that Hwui Shan reported what he 
thought to be the change in the customs of the inhabitants of 
the land which he had visited, brought about through their con- 
version to the doctrines of Buddha by means of the preaching of 
the five Buddhist missionaries, rather than their character as it 
was during the days when they were "ignorant." 

VIII. — TlIEY HAVE LITERARY CHARACTERS. 

The picture - writing of the Mexicans is so well known as 
to require but few references. Bancroft states that it*" reveals 
the phonetic element so developed as to endow the Mexicans 
with that high proof of culture, written records, ajiplied not only 
to historic incidents and common facts, but to abstract subjects 
of philosophic, scientific, and poetic nature. He also says of the 
Palenque inscriptions that they have all the characteristics of a 
written language in a state of development analogous to the 
Chinese with its word- writing ; and, like it, they appear to have 
been read in columns from top to bottom.-*' 

Sahagun says that their holy chants were written in their 
books,'"' and Dr. Brinton claims that no nation ever reduced 
pictography more to a system."" It was in constant use in the 
daily transactions of life. In these records we discern some- 
thing higher than a mere symbolic notation. They contain the 
germ of a phonetic alphabet, and represent sounds of spoken 
language. The symbol is often not connected with the idea, but 
with the icorcl. 

M. Leon de Rosny goes still further in the following state- 
ment, but does not mention the grounds upon which his opinion 
is based : " I am much inclined to believe that writing, properly 
so called, was known to the ^Mexicans at one time, probably 
during the times when the Toltec empire flourished ; but I also 
believe that this system of writing was absolutely distinct from 
that of the didactic paintings which were in vogue during the 
century of the last of the Montezumas."'''' 

I^- — The king of the country, when he walks abroad, is 

PRECEDED AND FOLLOWED WITH DRUMS AND HORNS. 

It is well known that '^* the pomp and circumstance which 
surrounded the Aztec monarchs, and the magnificence of their 
every-day life, was most impressive. 



422 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Cortez exclaims c""^ " So many and various were tlie ceremo- 
nies and customs observed by those in the service of Muteczuma, 
that more space than I can spare would be required for the de- 
tails, as well as a clearer memory, for their recollection, than I 
possess, since no sultan or other infidel lord, of whom any knowl- 
edge now exists, ever had so much ceremonial in his court." 

The kings did not often appear among their people, the rule 
being that they should not show themselves in public except in 
urgent cases (see "Duran," chajj. xxvi, p. 214).'°* Whenever 
they did appear abroad, however, it was with a parade that cor- 
responded with their other observances.'"* Prescott states that, 
when Montezuma went abroad, it was in state, on some public 
occasion, usually to the great temple, to take part in the religious 
services ; and, as he passed along, he exacted from his people 
the homage of an adulation worthy of an Oriental despot.^'* 

Bancroft says that the Mexicans had instruments of music, 
consisting of drums, horns, and large sea-shells ; ''" and in another 
place '^^ mentions drums, flutes, trumpets, and sharp whistles as 
their raiusical instruments. 

It should be remembered that the Spanish conquerors had 
but slight opportunity for beholding the pomp with which Mon- 
tezuma had been surrounded in his daily life. His power and 
vainglory vanished before them like mist before the rising sun. 
They had but time to catch a glimpse of it, and it was gone 
forever. "When he came forth to meet Cortez, it was under cir- 
cumstances so new and strange, that it is not surprising that 
some of the ceremonies usually observed when he ventured 
abroad should have been dispensed with. His power had been 
openly defied. These mysterious beings of another race, clad 
in armour which could not be pierced by the weapons of the 
Mexicans, mounted upon strange animals of a strength, speed, 
and docility of which they had before had no conception, and 
who breathed forth thunder and lightning, Avith which it was in 
their power to slay all those in their sight at their pleasure ; 
these creatures, who in some respects resembled men, but who 
had many of the attributes of the gods, came fearlessly to his 
capital city, regardless of his command to the contrary. This 
was no time for music or for public rejoicing, and, therefore, 
Montezuma was borne along in silence. 

That it was customary, however, for the rulers of Mexico to 



THE PECULIAKITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 423 

be accompanied by the music of drums and trumpets, when they 
appeared in public, is shown by the following quotations : When 
the natives of the surrounding region came to assist Cortez 
rebuild the city of Mexico after its conquest, " each chief of a 
city or village arrived at the head of his men accompanied by 
the sound of instruments:'' '^^ Tangaxoan, king of Michoacan, 
set forth to visit Cortez, and pay him tribute, " preceded by the 
music of his palace, and accompanied by a brilliant court." "' 
"The king of Guatemala came forth from his palace to meet the 
Spaniards, carried by his servitors upon a species of magnificent 
litter, and surrounded by a cortege of noblemen and of musi- 
cians." ''' When Tecum Uman, king of Quiche, left the capital, 
he was borne in his litter on the shoulders of the principal men 
of his kingdom, and preceded by the music of flutes, cornets, and 
drums.®^* 

These signs of rejoicing, these acts of adulation, were almost 
immediately exhibited before the conquering Spaniards. At 
their entrance into the city of Tlascala, victorious shouts and 
acclamations resounded upon all sides, and still greater confusion 
was caused by the fact that they were mixed with the clamour 
of the people and the dissonant music of their flutes, kettle- 
drums, and trumpets. ^^ Their entry into Cholula was similar 
to that at Tlascala ; the streets were filled with an immense con- 
course of people, through which they could only with diflBculty 
force their way ; tumultuous acclamations resounded upon all 
sides ; women distributed bouquets of flowers, and scattered 
them before them. Caciques and priests did reverence to them 
and smoked incense before them, and numbers of instruments 
were played which made more noise than music.'^^® So, too, at 
the entry into Gualipar, " kettle-drums, flutes, and shells were 
distributed in different bands, which alternated with and suc- 
ceeded each other, making a noisy and agreeable welcome." *^^' 
Zaraacois says that when Xicotencatl came to meet Cortez, "a 
numerous band of musicians, whose instruments consisted of 
drums, trumpets, and sea-shells, with which they produced a hor- 
rible noise, was seen in the first files of the troops." "" Cortez 
himself refers to the subject in the following words : " The next 
morning the people of Cholula came forth to receive me on the 
road, with many trumpets and kettle-drums." '"'' 

Cortez was not the only one to whom this sign of homage and. 



424 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

welcome was rendered. When the Spaniards invaded Nicara- 
gua, the natives, on several occasions, met the Spaniards in a 
procession of men and women, gayly decked in all their finery, 
marching to the sound of shell trumpets, and bearing in their 
hands presents for the invaders.*" In the distant north, Alva- 
rado, when he reached Cicuye, was welcomed by the inhabitants, 
who went before him with great demonstrations of joy, accom- 
panying him to the village to the sound of drums, and of flutes, 
similar to fifes, on which they often played.^*^ 

This method of showing joy in the presence of one whom 
they wished to honour, was, in later days, used as a means of hon- 
ouring the Spanish priests. Gage, in his account of his travels 
through the country, mentions this fact time and again. In his 
first journey, before he had fairly left the seaport of San Juan 
de Ulloa, he says : '*'^ " Two miles before we came to the Town 
of Vera Cruz, there met us on Horse-back some twenty of the 
chief of the Town, presenting unto every one of us a nosegay of 
flowers ; who rid before us a bow shot, till we met with more 
company on foot, to wit, the Trumpeters and the Waits, who 
sounded pleasantly all the way before us. . . . When we took 
our leaves, the Waits and Trumpets sounded again before us." 
So, also, when he departed from the little town called St. Chris- 
topher, " Waits and Trumpets " sounded before him.^^' On 
leaving Comitlan, when being ferried over the river upon which 
the town was situated, canoes went before his party with " the 
Quiristers of the church singing " before them, " and with others 
sounding their Waits and Trumpets." '^^* He finally mentions, 
as a general custom, that " to the Churcb there do belong, ac- 
cording as the Town is in bignesse, so many Singers, and Trum- 
peters, and Waits, over whom the Priest hath one Officer, who 
is called FlscaV^ " They are to attend with their Waits, Ti-um- 
pets, and Musick, upon any great man or Priest that cometh to 
their Town, and to make arches with boughs and flowers in the 
streets for their entertainment." '^*^ 

X. — They have cattle-horns, of which the long ones 
ARE USED TO CONTAIN somc of their POSSESSIONS, the best of 
them reaching a capacity of twice ten times as much as an 
ordinary horn-full. . . . The people or the country 
raise deer as cattle are raised in the Middle Kingdom 
(China). 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 425 

The first sentence is rendered by different translators as fol- 
lows : 

" The cattle of the country bear a considerable weight upon 
their horns." " The cattle have long horns, upon which bur- 
dens are loaded, which weigh sometimes as much as twenty ho 
(of one hundred and twenty Chinese pounds)." " The oxen have 
such large horns that they contain as much as ten sheep-skins ; 
the people use them to keep all kinds of goods." " They have 
cattle whose horns are very long, and who bear upon their horns 
a weight as great as twenty ho (the ho is a measure of ten 
bushels)." " Ox-horns are found in Fu-sang so large that their 
capacity is sometimes as great as two hundred bushels. They 
are used to contain all sorts of things." " There are oxen with 
long horns, so long that they will hold things ; the biggest as 
much as five pecks." 

It should be noted, however, that the statement refers to 
cattle-Aonw, and not to cattle. If the meaning wei'e, they " have 
long-horned cattle," the text would read, " yiu ch'akg kioh niu," 
the order of the words being the same that it is in English in 
the phrase included in quotation-marks. The order in the text is, 
however, tiu niu kioh ; they "have cattle-horns." One cause 
of variation in the translations is found in the character ^, tsai, 
which means both to contain and to bear ; and another cause lies 
in the uncertainty as to the size of the measure called a huh (or 
ho). 

Professor Williams gives the following information regarding 
it : ^^ " ^, HUH (from a peck measure and a horn), to measure, a 
measure ; the Chinese bushel holding ten pecks, or a picul, ac- 
cording to some, but the common table makes it to measure five 
pecks, or half a picul. At Shanghai the huh for rice holds only 
2*05 pints, and that for peas 1*86 pints ; the Buddhists use it for 
a full picul of 133^ lbs., av., but the Hindu drona, which the huh 
represents, weighs only 7 lbs. 11 oz., av." 

Bearing in mind the fact that the character is composed of a 
" horn " and a " measure," and that it is still used at Shanghai 
for an amount of rice or peas but little greater than the capacity 
of a large ox-horn, I can not help believing that it originally 
meant a "horn-full," and that it was with this meaning that 
Hwui Shan used it. 

It is a plausible remark ''^'^ of de Guignes (vol. ii, p. 173) that 



426 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

" the habit we fall into of conceiving things according to the 
words which express them, often leads us into error when read- 
ing the relations of travelers. Such writers have seen objects 
altogether new, but they are compelled, when describing them, 
to employ equivalent terms in their own language in order to be 
understood ; while these same terms tend to deceive the reader, 
who imagines that he sees such palaces, colonnades, peristyles, 
etc., under these designations, as he has been used to, when, in 
fact, they are quite another thing." 

Now, although the names of many animals in the New World 
have been frequently borrowed from the Old, the species are dif- 
ferent. ^"^^^ " When the Spaniards landed in America," says an 
eminent naturalist, " they did not find a single animal they were 
acquainted with ; not one of the quadrupeds of Europe, Asia, or 
Africa." (Lawrence, " Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the 
Natural History of Man," London, 1819, p. 250.) 

Hence we can not expect that the " cattle " or " cattle-horns," 
described by Hwui Shan, would be exactly the same as those of 
Asia or Europe. It seems very doubtful whether our mission- 
ary meant to state that there were "cattle" in the country. It 
is not improbable that all that he meant was that he had seen 
horns of a very large size in the possession of the people, and 
he supposed them to be cattle-horns. There is nothing to indi- 
cate that he ever saw the animals from which they were taken. 

If, however, he meant to refer to animals so similar to cattle 
as to be properly called by the same name, the buffaloes or bisons 
must have been the animals meant. The term " wild cattle " ^^ 
was occasionally applied, by both the early French and the early 
English explorers, to the moose {Alces malchis) and the elk ( Ger- 
viis Canadensis), ^^ but it was almost invariably applied to the 
bison. And the fact, that the horns were called " cattle-horns," con- 
clusively establishes the point that no animal of the deer species 
could have been referred to in this case. 

J3oei(f sauvage was the name given to the bison by Du Pratz,''* 
though it was often also called huffle, vache sauvage, and some- 
times bison iVAmerique, by the early French colonists, while the 
Canadian voyageurs are said to have termed it simply le hcenf. 
Kalm spoke of the American bisons as wilde Ochsen und Knehe, 
while the early English explorers also often referred to this ani- 
mal under the same English equivalent, and also used for it the 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 427 

names huffle and hceiif sauvage. Charlevoix called the bison the 
hceiif du Canada, while Hennepin called it taureau sauvage. 

The great kingdom'^*' of " Cibola " (a name meaning "buffa- 
lo "), although distant from the city of Mexico, must have been 
known to Montezuma, for we find the Spaniards struck with 
amazement at the sight of a singular animal in the zoological 
gardens of the Mexican monarch, such as they had neve.r seen 
before. Nor, according to Venegas, was it known in Sonora, or 
along the river Gila. By Solis, this animal is thus described : °^*' 
"This greatest rarity — the Mexican bull — has a bunch on its 
back like a camel, its flanks thin, its tail large, and its neck 
covered with hair like a lion ; it is cloven-footed, and its head is 
armed like that of a bull, which it resembles in fierceness, having 
no less strength and agility." Hernandes '**' also describes the 
animal by the name of the " Mexican bull." 

When Cabrillo explored the coast of California, he reported 
that the natives on the coast,^*™ and back in the interior also,'^" 
had "many cows." The animals here mentioned, and which 
were understood by the Spaniards to be cows, were doubtless 
bisons, which formerly ranged to the eastern foot-hills of the 
Sierras, and accounts of which, if not the skins of the animals, 
must have reached the coast tribes. Although cows were intro- 
duced into the New World by Columbus, and were brought to 
Mexico as early as 1525, it was not until many years afterward, 
on the permanent settlement of the country by the Spaniards, 
that these domestic animals found their way to California. 

Although the buffalo does not now range as far south as 
Mexico, there is proof that it was formerly to be found in the 
northern part of that country. 

Respecting the extreme southwestern limit of the former 
range of the buffalo,^'' Keating, on the authority of Calhoun, wrote 
in 1823 as follows : "De Laet says, quoting from Herrera, that 
they grazed as far south as the banks of the Yaquimi {Americm 
Utriusque JDescriptio, Lugd. Batav. Anno 1633, lib. 6, cap. 6, p. 
286). In the same chapter the author states that Martin P^re 
had, in 1591, estimated the province of Cinaloa, in which this 
river runs, to be three hundred leagues from the city of Mexico. 
This river is supposed to be the same which, on Mr. Tanner's 
map of North America (Philadelphia, 1822), is named Hiaqui 
(the Rio Yaqui, doubtless, of modern maps), and which is situ- 



/^ 



4:28 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ated between the 2Tth and 28th degrees of north latitude. 
Perhaps, however, it may be the Rio Gila, which empties itself in 
latitude 32°." (Quoted from " Long's Expedition to the Source 
of the St. Peter's River," vol. ii, p. 28.) 

Dr. Berlandier,^^ who was for a long time a resident of the 
northeastern provinces of Mexico, and who at his death left in 
MS. a 'large work, now in the Smithsonian Institution, on the 
mammals of Mexico, speaks of the buffalo as formerly ranging 
far to the southward of the Rio Grande. I am unable to say, 
however, what are his authorities. In his chapter on this animal 
he thus refers to its former range in Mexico : 

" In Mexico, when the Spaniards, always eager for Avealth, 
pushed their explorations into the north and northwest, they did 
not loiter to discover the buffaloes. In 1602 the Franciscan 
monks, who discovered New Leon, found numerous herds of these 
quadrupeds in the neighbourhood of Monterey. They were also 
scattered throughout New Biscay (the states of Chihuahua and 
Durango), and they sometimes went still farther south. Although 
they formerly roamed as far south as the 25th degree, they now 
do not pass the 27th or 28th degree, at least in the inhabited and 
"well-known portions of the country," 

In the map attached to Mr. Allen's work on " The American 
Bisons, Living and Extinct," the former limit of the buffalo 
range is put down as including the Mexican states of Nuevo 
Leon, Coahuila, and Chihuahua. 

The common bison has small horns, however, and the Asiatic 
explorer would not be likely to call them "long." Still, remains 
have been found of an extinct species of bison, which may have 
been living fourteen centuries ago, to the horns of which the 
term could be well applied. 

The first remains of such an animal discovered in North 
America were found in the bed of a small creek, about a dozen 
miles north of Big-bone Lick, Kentucky.^' This specimen Peale 
believed to indicate a species of the ox tribe of gigantic propor- 
tions, whose horns must have had a spread of nearly twelve feet 
— a conjecture that subsequent discoveries have proved well 
founded. In 1846 the greater portion of the skull of a large 
extinct bison was discovered on the Brazos River, near San Felipe, 
Texas. This specimen was of the same gigantic proportions as 
the one made knowui by Mr. Peale."* 



THE PECULIAKITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 429 

Among the measuremsnts given by Dr. Leidy of the first- 
named discovery are : ^^ Circumference of the horn-core at its 
base, 20^ inches ; circumference of the horn-core, ten inches 
from its base, 17^ inches. This specimen is still in the museum 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia. Through 
the kindness of the curators of the museum, Mr. J. A. Allen was 
enabled recently to examine the specimen at his leisure. He 
found the circumference of the horn-core, fourteen inches from 
the base (the point at which it is broken off), to be 16 inches, or 
only four inches and a half less than at the base, and one and a 
half inches less than at ten inches from the base. Mr. Peale, in 
his description of the same specimen, nearly three fourths of a 
century ago, expressed his belief that the horn itself could not 
have been less then six feet in length. 

The third specimen of cranial remains thus far known,'* as 
unquestionably referable to the Bison latifrons, consists of two 
nearly perfect horn-cores, with small fragments of the frontal 
bones attached. These remains were exhumed about three years 
since, in Adams County, Ohio. They are nearly entire, lacking 
only a little of the apical portions, and give the following 
measurements : Total length, measured along the upper side, 
32 inches ; total length, measured along the lower side, 34 
inches ; circumference, at base, 20 inches ; circumference, ten 
inches from the base, 16 inches ; circumference, fourteen inches 
from the base, 14i inches ; circumference, twenty-four inches 
from the base, 9^ inches. They thus about equal in size the 
specimens above described. 

If this gigantic animal was living at the time of Hwui 
Shan's visit, or if the horns were still occasionally found in the 
country some time after its extinction, they may well have at- 
tracted his attention. 

In case the reference is to the buffalo, it may be that one 
clause of the account should be read, " The largest of them attain 
(the weight of) twenty huh " ; and if the huh be considered as 
indicating a weight of one hundred and thii-ty-three and a 
third pounds, this would be but a slight exaggeration of their 
size. 

Audubon states the weight of old males to be nearly two 
thousand pounds, that of the full-grown fat females to be about 
twelve hundred pounds ; " and Brickell, in the " Natural History 



430 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of North Carolina," 1737, pp. 107-108, says : " These monsters 
(buffaloes) — as I have been informed — weigh from sixteen hun- 
dred to twenty-four hundred pounds weight." " 

It seems more reasonable to believe, however, that Hwui 
Shan referred to the enormous horns of the animal popularly 
known as the Rocky Mountain sheep, which he found in use by 
the Mexicans as receptacles for their property, and that, not 
having seen the animals from which they were taken, he fell into 
the error of considering them to be cattle-horns, 

Coronado reported that, in or near Cibola, he found certain 
sheep as big as a horse, with very great horns.'*" He adds, " I 
have seen their horns so big that it is a wonder to behold their 
greatness." The statements are also made, " These animals are 
very large. They have long horns,''' "'^ and " They say that every 
horn of theirs weigheth fifty pounds weight." '''"* The following 
is also given in the account of their journey : "^'^ " After having 
marched three days in the desert, we found, upon the bank of a 
river which ran through a deep caiion, a large horn, which the 
general had seen, and which he had left there that the army 
might see it also. It was a fathom (brasse) and a half in length ; 
the base was as large as a man's leg, and in its shape it resembled 
a goat's horn. It was a great curiosity." 

As to the use of horns by the Indians to contain their prop- 
erty, etc., Purchas says *'" that " Lopez de Gomara reporteth that, 
in Qnivera, the Buffalo Homes yeeld them Vessels." Gage also 
reports of the Mexicans (p. 145 of the German edition), " From 
horns they make drinking vessels and basins." 

The peculiar custom of taming deer, and keeping herds of 
them, as cattle are kept in other countries, existed in Mexico, 

Bancroft states that *'" the common people kept and bred 
techichi (a native animal resembling a dog), turkeys, quails, geese, 
ducks, and many other birds. The nobles also kept deer, hare, 
and rabbits. He adds that the '*^ kings and nobles of the Chichi- 
mecas kept forests of deer and hare to supply the people with 
food, until, in Nopaltzin's reign, they were taught to plant by a 
descendant of the Toltecs (Torquemada, " Monarq. Ind.,"tome i). 
Bandelier, also,"^ quoting from Torquemada, lib. i, chap, xlii, 
p. 67, says : " Neither did the Chichimecas pay any attention to 
it [agriculture or horticulture], for the reason that the Lords and 
Kings had parks ("bosques") of rabbits and deer, which sup- 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTEY. 431 

plied them with meat." Clavigero states ""' that in the estates 
of the nobility were bred fish, deer^ rabbits, and many varieties 
of birds. Certain natives of Guatemala, in the provinces of 
Acalan, called Mazatecas, kept deer in so tame a state that they 
were easily killed by the least active soldiers.''"^ Diaz says of 
them : "''* " Another day we saw two great villages of the same 
tribe. They are called the Mazatecas, which means ' People or 
Land of Deer'; and the name is certainly appropriate, for our 
path brought us soon into a great treeless meadow, Avhere we 
were fearfully burned by the sun, and the game grazed in such 
numbers, and were so fearless, that we soon killed more than 
twenty. In reply to the question how this happened, Ave learned 
that the people honoured these animals as holy, and neither 
killed nor frightened them." 

A letter written by the Adelantado Soto, regarding the ex- 
ploration of " Florida," says that the Indians asserted that,''^' at 
a distance of five days' journey, fowls would be found in abun- 
dance, as well as guanacos shut up in parks, and tame deer which 
were kept in herds. This report was probably without founda- 
tion, however. 

XI. — The ground is destitute of iroist, but thet have 

COPPER ; GOLD AND SILVER ARE NOT VALUED ; IN THEIR MARKETS 
THERE ARE NO TAXES OR FIXED PRICES. 

It is not certain that Neumann does not express the real 
meaning of the narrator in his rendering, " Gold and silver are 
not valued, and do not serve as the medium of exchange in 
their markets." 

Nearly every writer on the history of the Aztecs mentions 
the fact that the use of iron, though its ores are abundant in the 
country, was unknown to the natives,**' while copper could be 
obtained in abundance.*'' Gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead 
were the metals known to and used by the Nahuas. The latter, 
however, is merely mentioned, and nothing is known about 
where it was obtained or for what purposes it was employed ; ^-^ 
while tin also was but little used, and has never been found in 
any great quantities. 

Sahagun makes the following statement : " There is gold in 
this country, which is found in mines. There are also silver, 
copper, and lead. They are procured in different places, in the 
ravines, or in the rivers. Before the Spaniards came to New 



432 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Spain, no one cared to search for either silver or lead. The na- 
tives sought only for gold in the rivers."*'^'* 

Prescott says that the Mexicans were as vrell acquainted with 
the mineral as with the vegetable treasures of their kingdom. 
Silver, lead, and tin they drew from the mines of Taxco ; cop- 
per from the mountains of Zacatollan.^"" 

Copper-mines are mentioned *^^ at Santa Rita del Cobre, in 
what is now New Mexico, not far from the Mexican boundary. 
The copper was formerly sent to the city of Mexico ; but it is 
stated that " there is no longer a market in the city of Mexico, 
as other mines have been found much nearer." Copper was for- 
merly exported in considerable quantities from Sonora, and silver 
and gold are among the exports from that state."* 

As to their markets : we are informed that '*'^^ a very large 
square was set apart in all the principal cities of the kingdom 
for the exhibition and sale of the various articles of merchandise 
brought to market. Though these bazars were attended every- 
day, yet every fifth day was considered the principal or proper 
market-day,^'" and, to suit the convenience of the various mer- 
chants that constantly visited these marts, the adjacent cities 
held their principal market on such days as would not interfere 
with those of their neighbours. The number of persons col- 
lected together at such times in the city of Mexico has been es- 
timated by the Spanish conquerors at forty or fifty thousand. 

They made their purchases and sales by barter, each giv- 
ing that of which he had an excess for such goods as he might 
need."^^- Still, regular purchase and sale were not uncom- 
mon, particularly in the business of retailing the various com- 
modities to consumers. Although no regular coined money 
was used, yet several more or less convenient substitutes fur- 
nished a medium of circulation. Chief among these were nibs 
or grains of the cacao, of a species somewhat different from that 
employed in making the favourite drink, chocolate.'"' 

XIL— When they marry, it is the custom for the future 
sox-ix-LAW TO GO and erect a house (or cabin) outside of 
the door of the dwelling of the young woman whom he 
desires to marry. Morning and evening he sprinkles and 
SWEEPS the ground for a year, and if the young w-oman is 
NOT pleased with him, she then sends him away ; but if they 

ARE MUTUALLY PLEASED, THEN THEY COMPLETE THE MARRIAGE. 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 433 

The sprinkling and sweeping of the ground is evidently an 
act of homage, the dust being laid and the stones and other ob- 
stacles removed as a preparation of the road upon which the 
bride walks. When the prince Cacumatzin, lord of Tezcuco, 
and a nephew of Montezuma, came to visit Cortez, as soon as he 
alighted from the litter in which he was borne, some of his serv- 
ants ran before him to sweep the ground upon which he was 
about to tread.^^' This homage rendered to their chiefs was 
also, if we may believe Hwui Shan, shown to the prospective bride; 
and this, together with the entire freedom of choice left to the 
young woman, shows a state of civilization and a regard for 
woman very different from anything existing in China or other 
Asiatic countries, either at the time or since. This custom does 
not appear to have existed among the Aztecs at the time of the 
Spanish conquest, it having been extirpated by causes to be here- 
after considered ; but, scattered among the neighbouring tribes, 
we find, even among those which are usually considered the most 
savage and degraded, certain usages of courtship which seem to 
have been founded upon the same motives and feelings,, and to 
be the survivals of substantially the same custom, as that men- 
tioned by Hwui Shan. 

Cremony states that "*' the Apache girls are wholly free in 
their choice of husbands. Parents never attempt to impose 
suitors upon their acceptance, and the natural coquetry of the 
sought-for bride is allowed full scope until the smtor believes 
his "game made," when he proceeds to test his actual stand- 
ing. In the night-time he stakes his horse in front of her 
roost, house, hovel, encampment, bivouac, or whatever a few 
slender branches with their cut ends in the ground and their 
tops bound together may be termed. The lover then retires, 
and awaits the issue. Should the girl favour the suitor, his horse 
is taken by her, fed, and secured in front of his lodge ; but 
should she decline the proffered honour, she will pay no attention 
to the suffering steed. Four days comprise the term allowed her 
for an answer in the manner related. A ready acceptance is apt 
to be criticised with some severity, while a tardy one is regarded 
as the extreme of coquetry. Scarcely any one of them will lead 
the horse to water before the second day, as a hasty perform- 
ance of that act would indicate an unusual desire to be married ; 
nor will any suffer the fourth day to arrive without furnishing 
28 



434: AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the poor animal with its requisite food and drink, provided they 
intend to accept the suitor, for such a course would render them 
liable to the charge of extreme vanity. 

As the horse has been introduced among the Apaches since 
the time of the Spanish conquest, and as it is not likely that the 
custom above referred to can have spontaneously originated 
since that time, we are forced to the inference that it must be a 
changed form of some custom which formerly existed among 
them, and this may have been substantially the practice men- 
tioned by our Asiatic explorer. It is to be noticed, however, that 
the present custom of the Apaches, instead of showing a willing- 
ness upon the part of the young man to wait upon and care for 
his intended wife, requires service from her. Among the Coco- 
Maricopas, however, there is an evident desire to please the 
young woman. Among these Indians, when a man desires to 
marry,"* and has made choice of a girl for his wife, he first en- 
deavours to win over her parents by making them presents. The 
fair one's attention is sought by another process. To do this, he 
takes his flute, an instrument of cane with four holes, and, seat- 
ing himself beneath a bush near her dwelling, keeps up a plaint- 
ive noise for hours together. This music is continued day after 
day ; and, if no notice is at length taken of him by the girl, he 
may " hang up his flute," as it is tantamount to a rejection. If 
the proposal is agreeable, the fair one makes it known to the 
suitor, when the conquest is considered complete. 

It can hardly be disputed that there is a singular coincidence 

between this custom and that which is mentioned by Hwui Shan. 

In Yucatan it was the custom for newly married pairs to live, 

during the first few years after their marriage,'^®' in cabins built 

in front of the house of their father or father-in-law. 

Although I can give no good reason for it, beyond a belief 
that a year is a greater length of time than such a courtship 
would be likely to have been continued, I can not refrain from 
expressing my opinion that Hwui Shan meant to indicate some 
other length of time, by the word translated " year," than the 
period of twelve months, although this is certainly the only 
meaning that the character now has. The " week " of five days, 
referred to in the account of the " markets," would be a much 
more probable length of time for the young woman to put the 
patience of her suitor to the test. 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 435 

XIII. — When a nobleman has committed a crime, the 

PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY HOLD A GREAT ASSEMBLAGE, AND SIT in 

judgment on the culprit, in an excavated tumulus. They 

FEAST AND DRINK BEFORE HIM AND BID HIM FAREWELL wlien 

parting from him, as if taking leave of a dying man. Then 

THEY SURROUND HIM WITH ASHES THERE. 

The character which I have translated " an excavated tumu- 
lus " has been rendered " a ditch," " an excavation," " a subterra- 
neous place," and "a hollow or pit." 

The usual character for a ditch, excavation, or hollow, is ^, 
k'ang (composed of earth and the phonetic k'ang) ; but the one 
used in this case is JJjJ (composed of a 'mound and the same pho- 
netic), and means not only a ditch, excavation, or valley, but 
also a tumulus}^^'^ Hence I have translated it as above stated. 
Of all the characters in the Chinese language, there is none which 
gives a better representation of the singular structure referred to 
in the following quotations : 

" The sweat-house,'" or, as the Spaniards call it, the eshifa, 
assumes with the Pueblos the grandest proportions. Every vil- 
lage has from one to six of these singular structures. A large 
semi-subterranean room is at once bath-house, town-house, coun- 
cil-chamber, club-room, and church. It consists pf a large exca- 
vation, the roof being about on a level with the ground, some- 
times a little above it, and is supported by heavy timbers or 
pillars of masonry. Around the sides are benches, and, in the 
center of the floor, a square stone box for fire, wherein aromatic 
plants are kept constantly burning. Entrance is made by means 
of a ladder, through a hole in the top, placed directly over the 
fire-place, so that it also serves as a ventilator, and affords a free 
passage to the smoke. Usually they are circular in form, and of 
both large and small dimensions. They are placed either within 
the great building, or under ground in the court without. In 
some of the ruins they are found built in the center of what was 
once a pyramidal pile, and four stories in height. At Jemes the 
estufa is of one story, twenty-five feet wide by thirty feet high. 
The ruins of Chettro Kettle contain six estufas, each two or 
three stories in height. At Bonito are estufas one hundred 
and seventy-five feet in circumference, built in alternate layers 
of thick and thin stone slabs. In these subterranean temples 
the old men met in secret council, or assembled in worship of 



436 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

their gods. Here are held dances and festivities, social inter- 
course, and mourning ceremonies." 

" Each pueblo ^" contains an estufa, which is used both as a 
council-chamber and a place of worship, where they practice such 
of their heathen rites as still exist among them. It is built partly 
under ground, and is considered a consecrated and holy place. 
Here they hold all their deliberations upon public affairs, and 
transact the necessary business of the village." (Davis's "El 
Gringo," p. 142.) 

" In the west end of the town (S. Domingo) is an estuffa, or 
public building, in which the people hold their religious and 
political meetings. The structure — which is built of adobes, is 
circular in plan, about nine feet in elevation, and thirty-five feet 
in diameter, and with no doors or windows laterally — has a small 
trap-door in the terrace or flat roof by which admission is 
gained." (Simpson's " Jour. Mil. Recon.," p. 62.) 

Morgan mentions these estufas at Taos,"*® Pintado,'^" Pen- 
asca Blanca,"" and other pueblos ; "*^ and they are also referred to 
by Bancroft,'^' Bell, ^"^ and Wheeler,'*^' and in fact by all who 
have written about the natives of New Mexico, Arizona, and 
Northern Mexico. 

The " great assembly," or council, is distinctively American, 
and among nearly all the American tribes it was the custom to 
settle all important public matters at such meetings. Morgan 
says (referring particularly to the Iroquois, though the statement is 
equally true of most other American tribes) that it ''^° is a singu- 
lar fact, resulting from the structure of Indian institutions, that 
nearly every transaction, whether social or political, originated or 
terminated in a council. This universal and favourite mode of 
doing business became interwoven with all the affairs of public and 
private life. Immediately on the commission of a murder "^* the 
affair was taken up by the tribes to which the parties belonged. 
If the criminal belonged to one of the first four tribes, and the 
deceased to one of the second four, these tribes assembled in 
separate councils, to inquire into all the facts of the case. Had 
it chanced that both parties belonged to one of the four brother 
tribes, a council of this division alone would convene to attempt 
an adjustment among themselves. Bandelier says of these coun- 
cils among the Mexicans, that "' the council of the kin exercised 
power over life and death. 



THE PECULIARITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 437 

As to the punishment of nobles, the following quotation 
from Sahagun "'* is pertinent : " Drunkenness was punished in 
two ways. If a great lord, or a man of distinction, was guilty 
of this crime, he was hung for its first commission, and his body 
was finally dragged along the public highway and thrown into 
a certain river. If the drunkard was of a lower class, he was 
sold into slavery for his first fault ; but, if it occurred a second 
time, he was hung. In regard to this difference in the punish- 
ment, the king said that he who was the most elevated in rank 
merited the most rigorous treatment." "" 

Solis also states that ^^" capital punishment was the penalty 
for any failure of integrity in the officers of the law. In Darien '** 
a constable could not arrest or kill a noble ; consequently, if 
one committed a crime punishable with death, the chief must kill 
him with his own hand, and notice was given to all the people 
by beating the large war-drum, so that they should assemble 
and witness the execution. The chief, then, in presence of the 
multitude, recited the offense, and the culprit acknowledged the 
justice of the sentence. This duty fulfilled, the chief struck the 
culprit two or three blows on the head with a maccma until he 
fell, and, if he was not killed, any one of the spectators gave him 
the finishing-stroke. 

Cortez gives the following account of the infliction of capital 
punishment by an assemblage of the people : '"'^ " When one of 
the natives of Tlascala stole some gold of a Spaniard, . . , they 
placed him at the base of a structure resembling a theatre, which 
stands in the midst of the market-place, while the crier went to 
the top of the building and with a loud voice proclaimed his 
offense ; whereupon the people beat him with sticks until he 
was dead " ; and the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg says that,**" 
if a chief of the Teo-Chichimecs was guilty of adultery, he was 
put to death by his vassals. 

I am not aware that the custom of inflicting the death pen- 
alty by smothering the culprit in ashes ever existed elsewhere, 
yet this singular punishment survived in Mexico up to the time 
of the Spanish conquest. Bancroft states that"" in Tezcuco 
criminals of a certain class were " bound to a stake, comjjletely 
covered with ashes, and so left to .die." Clavigero mentions 
that"" the laws published by the celebrated king Kezalmal- 
coyotl provided that a man guilty of a certain heinous crime 



438 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

should be " suffocated in a heap of ashes " ; and Sahagun bears 
his testimony to the same practice in the following words : "" 
" A person guilty of a certain grave crime was (by the laws of 
Nezahualcoyotl, one of the worthiest kings of Mexico), after 
other punishment, finally abandoned to the boys of the village, 
who covered him with ashes, and with a pile of wood, to which 
they set fire. His accomplice was also buried under a pile of 
ashes, and there died of suffocation." 

To my mind the singular facts mentioned in this paragraph ; 
the custom of calling councils ; the practice of holding them in 
an excavation or an excavated tumulus ; the power of life and 
death lodged in such a council ; the custom of meting out a 
heavier penalty to a criminal of the higher classes than was 
visited upon one of lower rank ; and the remarkable method of 
inflicting capital punishment by suffocation in ashes — are suf- 
ficient to prove that Hwui Shan actually visited America, if no 
further evidence were to be found in any of his other statements. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE NAERA.TOE OF THE STOEY. 

The condition of China at the time — The reign of a Buddhist emperor — The bhik- 
shits, or mendicant priests — Their duties — Rules for their conduct — The name 
Hwui Shan — Frequency with which the name Hwui occurs — Meaning of the 
characters — The nationality of Hwui Shan — Cophene — Struggle between 
Brahmanism and Buddhism — The route from India to China — The command 
that at least three should go together when traveling — Persecution in China 
in the year 458 — The journey to America by water — Ease of the trip — Proba- 
bility that Hwui ShSn was but slightly acquainted with the Chinese language 
— Yu Kie's criticism of Hwui Shan's statements — Causes of errors — Use of 
the term " water-silver " — Accounts given by first explorers seldom free 
from error — Absurdities narrated by other Chinese travelers — Pliny — He- 
rodotus — Marco Polo — Maundevile — Caesar — The unicorn — Elks without joints 
in their legs — The Icelandic account of Vinland — Difficulties in the account 
— The Unipeds — The Zeno brothers — Ignorance of geography in the fifteenth 
century — Marvelous tales of early explorers — Allowances to be made — Hwui 
Shan entitled to equal charity. 

Before entering upon an examination of other statements re- 
garding the land of Fu-sang, it will be best to consider the 
circumstances under which the account was first given, and learn 
what we can of the original narrator. The Chinese text has 
the following upon the subject : 

XIV. — In the first tear of the reign of the ts'i dynasty, 
known by the designation yung-yuen (or " Everlasting Founda- 
tion," i. e., in the year, 499 a. d.), a shaman (or Buddhist priest), 
named hwui shan, came to king-cheu from that country, 
and TOLD the following story regarding the country of fu- 
sang (or fu-sang-kwoh). ... In the second year of the 
reign of the sung dynasty, in the period called ta-ming (or 
" Great Brightness," i. e., in the year 458 a. d.), five men, who 
were pi-k'iu (i. e., bhikshus, or mendicant Buddhist monks), 
who were foemerly from the country of ki-pin (i. e., Co- 
phene), WENT by a voyage to that cotjntey. 



440 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The Marquis d'Hervey has, in the notes contained in the thir- 
teenth chapter of this work, given a full and vivid description 
of the unhappy condition in which Hwui Shan found China, 
when he reached it from Fu-sang. He was obliged to remain in 
the country some two or three years, until, as the result of the 
civil war then raging, the old dynasty of the Ts'i was overthrown, 
and the Liang dynasty was established in its place, its first em- 
peror being known as Wu-ti. This monarch became so great a 
devotee of Buddhism®^- that he retired to a monastery, like 
Charles V, but, having been persuaded to resume his crown, 
he thenceforth employed his time in teaching the doctrines of 
this religion to his assembled courtiers.^"^ 

Prior to his time. Buddhism had been discarded by the Chi- 
nese, but in his reign it again revived. "^^ Ma Twan-lin mentions 
a Hindoo who, about a. d. 502, translated into Chinese some 
Buddhist Shastras of the Great Development school.'^" In 506 
a Buddhist priest, named Sanga Pala, introduced into China the 
first alphabet for writing Sanskrit words,"^" and the reign of 
this emperor was particularly distinguished by the arrival in 
China, from India, of Ta-mo (Bodhi-dharma), the twenty-eighth 
of the patriarchs of the Buddhist religion, and by the extraor- 
dinary prosperity of this faith under the imperial favour/"^^ 

We are not informed as to the circumstances under which he 
became converted to Buddhism ; but it seems not impossible 
that the story of Hwui Shan's adventures in its behalf may have 
had a share in attracting his attention to the subject. 

The Chinese term pi-k'iu is a transcription of the Sanskrit 
word hhiJcshu, " mendicant," ™^ which was applied to those monks 
who professed to obtain their sustenance by alms,"'*® begging above 
to sustain their intellectual life, and below to support their visi- 
ble body. 

Those who have devoted themselves to this kind of life have 
to practice twelve kinds of observances, named t'eu-t'o, from a 
Sanskrit word which signifies to shake one's self, because these 
disturbances help to clean away the dust and the foulness of 
vice."^* The mendicant should shun all causes of disturbance ; 
eschew vain ornaments ; destroy in the heart the germs of cu- 
pidity ; avoid pride ; and, in purifying his life, search for supreme 
reason, rectitude, and truth. The twelve observances which are 
recommended to them with this view have reference to the four 



THE NAKRATOR OF THE STORY. 44I 

actions or manners of being, named wei-ti (" gravity," or " that 
which should be done gravely"), namely, to walk, to stand, to 
sit, and to lie down. The following is extracted from a book 
specially treating upon the twelve observances, and entitled Shi- 
eul-t'eu-t'o King : 

1. The mendicant should dwell in a place which is a-lan-jo 
{dranyaka), that is to say, a tranquil place, a place of repose. 
This is the means of avoiding disturbance of spirit, of escaping 
the dust of desire, of destroying forever all the -causes of revolt, 
and of obtaining supreme reason, etc. 

2. It is requisite that he always beg his subsistence (in Pali, 
pindapcitiJca), in order to extinguish cupidity. The mendicant 
should accept no man's invitation. He should beg the nourish- 
ment necessary for the support of his material body and the ac- 
complishment of his moral duties. He ought to recognize no 
difference in the food obtained, whether it be good or bad ; nor 
to feel resentment if it be refused him : but always to cultivate 
the equanimity of a perfect spirit. 

3. In begging he should take his rank (in Pali, vdthdjmtitari) 
without being attracted by savoury meats ; without disdain for 
any one, and without selection between rich and poor : with pa- 
tience should he take his rank. 

4. The mendicant who occupies himself with good works 
should thus reflect : " It is much to obtain one meal ; it is too 
much to make an early repast (breakfast), and a second (after 
midday). If I do not retrench one of these, I shall lose the 
merit of half a day, and my spirit will not be entirely devoted 
to reason." He therefore avoids multiplicity of meals, and adojjts 
the custom of making one {eka 2ydmka). 

5. The food which the mendicant obtains shall be divided 
into three portions : one portion shall be given to any person 
whom he shall see suffering from hunger ; the second he shall 
convey to a desert and quiet spot, and there place it beneath a 
stone for the birds and the beasts. If the mendicant fall in with 
no person in want, he must not on that account himself eat all 
the food he has received, but two thirds only. By this means 
his body will be lighter and better disposed, his digestion quicker 
and less labourious. He can then without inconvenience apply 
himself to good works. When one eats with avidity, the bowels 
and the stomach enlarge, and the respiration is impeded ; noth- 



442 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ing is more injurious to the progress of reason. This fifth ob- 
servance is called, in Sanskrit, khalupaswaddhaJctinka. 

6. The juice of fruits, honey, and other things of the same 
kind ought never to be taken by the mendicant after midday. 
If he drink of these, his heart abandons itself to desire, and be- 
comes disgusted with the practice of virtue. 

7. The mendicant ought not to desire ornaments ; let him 
seek no sumptuous dresses, but take the tattered raiments that 
others have rejected, wash and clean them, and make of them 
patched garments, only for protection from cold, and to cover his 
nakedness. New and handsome vestures give rise to the desire 
of rebirth ; they disturb the reasoning, and they may, moreover, 
attract robbers. 

8. TrdichivariJca, or only three dresses. These words import 
that the mendicant should content himself with the kia-sha, of 
nine, of seven, or of five pieces. He has few desires, and is easily 
satisfied. He desires neither to have too much nor too little rai- 
ment. He equally eschews men dressed in white, who have 
numerous dresses, and those heretics who, from a spirit of morti- 
fication, go entirely naked, in defiance of all modesty ; each ex- 
treme is contrary to reason. The three vestments hold the proper 
medium. Moreover, the word kia-sha signifies "of divers col- 
ours," because of the pieces which form the vestment of the first, 
second, and third order. 

9. Smdsdnika, or the dwelling amid tombs, obtains for the 
mendicant just ideas of the three things which form the prime 
gate of the law of Fo : instability, or the brief duration of 
bodies which, composed of five elements, return to their originals 
and are destroyed ; pain, which oppresses the body from the mo- 
ment of birth till that of death ; and vacuity, since the body is 
borrowed, formed by the reunion of the four elements, and sub- 
ject to destruction. This is, in fact, the observation made upon 
this subject by Sakya Muni himself, who opened by it the road 
to supreme wisdom. By dwelling among tombs, the mendicant 
beholds the exhibition of death and of funerals. The stench and 
the corruption, the impurities of every description, the funeral 
pyres, the birds of prey, awaken in him the thought of instability, 
and hasten his progress in goodness. 

10. Vrikshamxdiha, or being seated under a tree. The men- 
dicant, who hath not attained wisdom amid the tombs, should go 



THE NAERATOR OF THE STORY. 443 

and meditate beneath a tree ; there let him. seek for wisdom, as 
did Buddha, who accomplished under a tree the principal events 
of his life ; who was there born, who there completed the doc- 
trine, there turned the wheel of the law, and finally there at- 
tained his parinirvcma. This is an effect of destiny. We learn 
besides that other Buddhas similarly placed themselves ; and the 
tree is so connected with these supreme operations that the word 
bohdi equally means the tree and the doctrine. 

11. To sit on the ground, dhhyavakdshika, is an additional 
advantage for the mendicant. Seated beneath a tree so as to be 
half covered by its shade, he enjoys the cool air. It is true 
he is exposed to rain and moisture, that the droppings of birds 
soil him, and that he is exposed to the bite of venomous beasts ; 
but he also abandons himself to meditation ; seated on the earth, 
his spirit is recreated ; the moon, in shining on him, seems to 
illumine his spirit ; and he thus gains the power of more easily 
entering the ecstatic state. 

13. Naishadhika^ to be seated, not recumbent. The sitting 
posture is that best becoming a mendicant ; his digestion and his 
respiration are more easy, and he thus more readily attains wis- 
dom. Vices invade those who abandon themselves to idleness, 
and surprise them at disadvantage. Walking and standing set 
the heart in motion, and the mind is at rest. The mendicant 
should take his rest seated and should not allow his loins to 
touch the ground. 

It appears to me that the foregoing extract, from a work con- 
secrated to the habits of Buddhist mendicants, will supply the 
reader with more correct ideas of the sect than the repetition of 
what travelers have said upon the subject. The observances in- 
culcated in the eighth paragraph may be noted as directly op- 
posed to the manners of the digamharas, or gymnosophists of 
India.'^^ 

As to the name Hwui Shun : it is to be observed that it is the 
practice of Chinese Buddhists, on entering a religious career, 
to lay aside their family name, and, in token of renewed life, adopt 
another of moral or religious signification ; '^-* and no other sur- 
name seems to have been so commonly adopted in such cases as 
that of Hwui (or, as it is spelled by the French authorities who 
have discussed the subject, Hoei), meaning " intelligent, wise, 
mild." 



444 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

In the account of the travels of the Buddhist monk Fa Hian, 
we find among the names of the priests who accompanied him, 
or whom he met, those of Hoei Kmg, Hoei Ying, Hoei Wei,'^^* 
Hoei Kian,'^-' and Hoei Tha.'^^^ We find the same surname also in 
the case of Hwui-sheng, a priest who, in the year 518, accom- 
panied Sung-ytin, who was sent to India for Buddhist books 
by the prince of the Wei country.^-" 

The name Shan (or, as it is spelled by other authorities — and 
even by Professor Williams himself, elsewhere than in his dic- 
tionary — Shin) means "deep, profound, learned." The Chinese 
call the Pacific Ocean the " Shin " sea, i. e., the " Deep " sea."^* 
According to Hepburn,"^^ the Japanese use the character with the 
meaning " to grow old, to grow late " ; and it therefore probably 
once had that signification in Chinese. 

An interesting question now ai'ises as to the nationality of 
Hwui Shan. The text says that he was from " that country," 
meaning the country of Fu-sang, for the Chinese character M, 
k'i, here translated " that," is equivalent in this connection to 
the Latin "ille."^'"" 

From the nature of the substantive verb ^, Tin, which 
expresses his connection with Fu-sang, it may possibly be in- 
ferred, however, that he was not a native of the country, but 
merely a traveler who had visited it and returned from it. 

Summers says of the Chinese substantive verbs that there 
are several "°^ which vary according to the nature of the case 
in which they are used and the connection of the subject with 
the predicate in a sentence. The logical copula "is" is ex- 
pressed by the verb shi. It denotes either that the predicate 
is, or that it is generally supposed to be, an attribute of the 
subject by nature. . . . The verb wei, " to do, to exist, to be- 
come," is also used as a substantive verb, but only when the 
notion of becoming something by mere conventional arrange- 
ment is implied, not, as is the case with shi, when the relation 
between the subject and predicate is a natural consequence. In 
"fire is hot" use shi; in "the Yellow River is the boundary" 
use wei. Also, especially before designations in the predicate, 
"he is (loei) a slave." . . . When the substantive verb im- 
plies location, the verb tsai, " to exist, or consist in," is used ; 
and when the possession of some attribute, the verb yiu, " to 
have": e.g., in "he is here" use tsai, in "this is polite" use 



THE NARRATOR OF THE STORY. 445 

yiu. . . . The verb yiu means to have some quality as an ac- 
quired possession or as an accident, " to happen to be." He 
says, again,^*^" the substantive verbs are variously used, accord- 
ing to the logical relation of the subject and predicate in the 
sentence. Thus shi, " to be," means " is " where the simple copula 
alone is required, the predicate being natural to the subject. 
Ykt, " to have," means " is " when the notion of the property 
having been acquired is intended, as in " he is rich." 

His explanation of the different shades of meaning inherent 
in these verbs, is repeated ^*" in several places.^*'^ 

According to these reiterated statements as to the power of 
the various substantive verbs, it would appear that Hwui Shan's 
connection with the country of Fu-sang, which is expressed by the 
verb YIU, was an acquired, or accidental connection, and not one 
to which he was born. I must confess, however, that my confi- 
dence in this conclusion is somewhat shaken by the fact that 
this same verb yiu is used to indicate the connection of the five 
Buddhist priests with Cophdne ; and there can hardly be a doubt 
that in their case it is meant that they were natives of that land. 

The different authorities do not agree as to the exact location 
of Coph^ne, although there is no doubt as to its having lain 
northerly from India. One of the notes to the Pilgrimage of 
Fa Hian says that '^^* Coph^ne is the country watered by the 
Cophes. Rennell supposed the affluent of the Indus, so named 
by the ancients, to be identical with the Cowmull ; Saint Croix 
believes it rather to be the Merhamhir. The syllable " Cow " is 
probably a remnant of the ancient appellation. Ki-pin, which 
Chinese authors confound with Cashmere, and which de Guignes 
has taken for Samarcand, supposing the latter to be identical 
with Kaptchak, corresponds with the country of Ghizneh and 
Candahar. It is celebrated in Chinese geography, and appears 
to have been a flourishing seat of Buddhism. 

A second note by another commentator says, however,"** that 
the Coph^ne of the ancients is not, as Rennell and the French 
editors suppose, the Gomal (not Cowmull), an inconsiderable 
mountain-stream, dry all the year except at the season of the 
periodical rains. The Cabul River is the only one that corre- 
sponds with the accounts given of the Coph^ne by the historians 
of Alexander, particularly Arrian, who describes it as falling 
into the Indus, in the country of Peukelaotis, and carrying along 



446 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

with it the tributary waters of the Malantus, Suastus, and Gara- 
cus. ("Indica" iv, 11.) M. Pauthier says that the country of 
Coph^ne is Cabul,^"^* and that the Chinese have given it succes- 
sively '^"°' the names of Kia-she-mi-lo (Cashmere), Tsao, Ko- 
shi-mie^ and Sa-ma-eul-kan (Samarcand). Edkins says in one 
place that it is the same as the modern Cabul,'"^ and in another 
that it is stated to be Candahar ; *^*^ and F. Porter Smith says 
that °^^* it is a part of Afghanistan, whose capital is said to be 
12,200 li from the Chinese city of Si-ngan-fu, and that in some 
Chinese works Ki-pin is said to be Samarcand. 

The priests of Coph^ne were noted for their zeal, and priests 
from that country were the most diligent of any in translating 
their scriptures in China. ^^* 

In the fifth century a struggle in India between Brahmanism 
and Buddhism ended in the overthrow of the latter in the land 
of its birth,'^" and its devotees sought in distant lands a refuge 
from the intolerance of their persecutors. The extensive inter- 
course that then began to exist between China and India may 
be gathered from the fact '^^ that even Ceylon sent an embassy 
and a letter to the Chinese emperor Sung Wen-ti. The journey 
is one of almost incredible difficulty and peril ; the route pass- 
ing through deserts and across a number of the highest mountain 
ranges of the world, through passes far above the limits of 
perpetual snow and along frightful precipices. Notwithstand- 
ing these perils, however, and the fact that hostile and savage 
tribes infest many portions of the country through which the 
road passes, still, more or less communication has been kept up 
between the two countries since that time. The Arabic ac- 
count of voyages made to China in the ninth century states 
that """^ some of those who made the journey mentioned having 
seen in China a man, who bore a leathern packet of musk upon 
his back, who had come from Samarcand, having traveled the 
distance on foot. 

The fact that there were five priests in the party which went 
to Fu-sang was in accordance with a rule of their religion which 
required that in going to a distance at least three should be in 
company,"*" and it was, therefore, the common practice for Bud- 
dhist priests, in the performance of their pilgrimages from town 
to town, and from temple to temple, from India to China, and 
from China to India, to associate themselves in companies."^® 



THE NARRATOR OF THE STORY. 447 

Although it may be a mere coincidence, it seems worthy of 
notice that, in the year 458, the year in which this party went 
to Fu-sang, a conspiracy was detected in China in which a chief 
party was a Buddhist priest. An edict issued on the occasion 
by the emperor says that among the priests, " Many are men who 
have fled from justice and taken the monastic vows for safety. 
They take advantage of their assumed character to contrive new 
modes of doing mischief. The fresh troubles thus constantly 
occurring excite the indignation of gods and men." " The con- 
stituted authorities," it is added, *' must examine narrowly into 
the conduct of the monks. Those who are guilty must be put to 
death." '"^ It seems not unlikely that the examination then com- 
menced amounted to a severe religious persecution, and this may 
have caused some party of priests from Coph^ne, who had already 
settled in China, or who, more probably, reached China from Co- 
phene at this time, to travel on beyond this land of persecution, 
and so finally to reach America. 

The Chinese character j|^, tiit, translated " by a voyage," 
contains the radical " water," and therefore means properly " to 
travel by water — to float, swim, or drift," although it has come 
to have the secondary meaning of traveling, roving about. It 
seems most likely, however, that fourteen centuries ago it would 
have been used in its original meaning, and this character, to- 
gether with the statement that Japan, the country of " Marked 
Bodies," and the Great Han Country were on the route to Fu- 
sang, indicates that the party went by boat, along the coast, by 
way of the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, and thence down the 
American coast. 

The voyage in an open row-boat or canoe is not only prac- 
ticable, but its difficulties and perils are hardly to be compared 
with those of the overland journey from India to China. The 
ease of the trip from Asia, along the Kurile and Aleutian Islands, 
to Alaska, and the fact that the natives constantly pass back and 
forth between the two continents in the slightest of boats, scarcely 
ever being out of sight of land while making the trip, have been 
mentioned in the first chapter of this work. The remainder of 
the voyage, along the American coast, is even easier. The excur- 
sion from Oregon to Alaska can scarcely be termed an ocean trip. 
Out of a total distance of more than a thousand miles, there 
are hardly one hundred and twenty miles of open sea voyage. 



* 
448 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The remainder of the journey, on account of the remarkable 
formation of the coast, is through a continuous archipelago, 
serving as a breastwork against the storms and billows, and af- 
fording quiet passageways through deep, narrow channels and 
reaches, skirted on either side with well-wooded banks, high, 
rocky shores, and towering islands.^^^ 

The text does not say explicitly that Hwui Shan was one of 
the five monks who made this voyage together, but this was most 
probably the case. If so, he must have been a young man when he 
started (and hence can have spent but little time, if any, in China), 
and quite an elderly man when he reached China, on his way back 
home, forty-one years later. When he gave his account to the 
representative of the Chinese emperor, he had probably been in 
China not more than some two or three years. It seems a 
reasonable supposition that, in this length of time, he could not 
have learned to speak and write Chinese perfectly, and hence his 
story was probably told, as best he could tell it ; in disjointed 
and ungrammatical phrases ; by the use of such Chinese written 
characters as he had become acquainted with ; by signs and rude 
drawings, to eke out his meaning when he was ignorant of the 
proper word to use. Yu Kie, the officer who took down his story, 
probably held long colloquies with him ; many questions may 
have been asked on one side and explanations attempted on 
the other, which were not fully understood. It is evident, from 
the story narrated by Yu Kie, and given in the thirteenth chap- 
ter of this work, that Hwui Shan told him much which he either 
realized that he did not comprehend or else which he did not 
fully credit. 

The story of the land of Fu-sang, as we have it in Ma 
Twan-lin's text, is therefore the result of Yu Kie's criticism of 
Hwui Shan's statements. In many places it may contain the 
account of the latter just as he gave it, in imperfect Chinese, 
and by the use of characters which did not exactly express 
his real meaning, if construed strictly in accordance with the 
grammatical rules of the Chinese language. In other cases Yu 
Kie probably wrote down the substance of the understanding that 
he had reached on the particular point in question, after hold- 
ing a long colloquy on the subject with Hwui Shan. If this 
theory is true, Yu Kie arrived at quite a complete comprehension 
of Hwui Shan's statements, and showed much discretion and 



THE NAEEATOR OF THE STOEY. 449 

judgment in the digest of his story, which he entered in the coun- 
try's annals ; and yet there is just such an amount of confusion 
and disconnection in the account as would be the natural result 
of a conversation between two men of different nationalities, 
who were able to understand each other but imperfectly ; while 
it is noticeable that the various points, as to which the story is 
not strictly true of America, are points in which the truth is, as 
it were, travestied. 

The account was written down nearly a hundred years before 
printing was invented in China,'"' and the liability of errors in 
copying manuscript is very great. The numerous variations in 
the several texts show that the original account has been more 
or less corrupted. When allowance is made for these corrup- 
tions and for misunderstandings of the text, it is not surprising 
that, as to some of the details, the glimpse which we get of the 
far off land of Fu-sang is such as would be obtained of a distant 
landscape through a window of old and imperfect glass — glass 
streaked and faulty when first placed in position, and now dimmed 
and cracked by unnumbered storms, and obscured by the dust of 
centuries. There is imperfection and distortion in the view, and 
yet it is evident that we are looking at a real landscape, the handi- 
work of nature, and not at a mere human invention. 

To the causes above mentioned should be attributed the use 
of the term " water-silver " for ice ; the connection of the ac- 
counts of the fu-sang tree and of the red pears, in such a way 
that the latter may be supposed to be the fruit of the former, 
and the statement that koumiss was made from " milk," without 
any explanation of the peculiar nature of the milk. Yu Kie 
seems to have understood that the milk was that of the does to 
which Hwui Shan had referred in his statement that the people 
of Fu-sang raised deer as cattle were raised in China ; and yet 
there seems to have been some attempt on the part of Hwui Shan 
to set him right, for he reverts to the vegetation, and immediately 
makes a statement — otherwise disconnected — regarding the red 
pears. 

There are other instances of misunderstandings ; of statements 
which seem to be connected with others near which they stand, 
and which are untrue in that connection, and yet true if they are 
allowed to stand by themselves ; but upon the whole Yu Kie 
showed such good judgment in-w^hat he accepted and rejected, 
29 



450 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

that the official account as given us by Ma Twan-lin is as good 
a description of a newly discovered land as any that we have ; 
fox* it must be borne in mind that the tales which are told by 
first explorers are seldom free from mistakes, even though the 
discoverer of the formerly unknown region be a man of intelli- 
gence, who strives to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. 
Possibly some errors may have arisen from misunderstandings 
by Hwui Shan himself. It is not to be expected that he alone 
among explorers would fail to narrate some tales on hearsay, 
to give in some cases his erroneous inferences instead of the 
facts upon which his inferences were founded, or to exaggerate 
or misunderstand some strange phenomenon that he had seen. 

Fa Hian is not denounced as a " lying Buddhist priest " be- 
cause modern travelers fail to find the " venomous dragons," 
mentioned by him, " which dart their poison if they happen to 
miss their prey." "^^ Other Chinese mediaeval travelers refer to 
two-headed snakes,''*' describe the ostrich as feeding upon fire,"* 
mention " dragon-horses with scales and horns," '** and eagles 
which lay eggs from which dogs are hatched out ; "" and yet there 
is no question that they actually visited the countries which they 
attempt to describe. Some of these travelers heard of the cot- 
ton-plant : this bears " wool," and hence may be considered as a 
vegetable-sheep.'*^* From this simple fact the following marvel- 
ous tale gradually grew in neighbouring lands, and was gravely 
narrated by the travelers : " The ' sheep planted on hillocks ' are 
produced in the western countries. The people take the navel 
of a sheep, plant it in the ground and water it. When it hears 
thunder it grows, the navel retaining a connection with the 
ground." "' 

Is the whole story of the traveler who gives an account of 
this nature to be rejected because of his credulity ? Not at all. 
The critic who will take the trouble to separate the true from 
the false, and to extract from the false the kernel of truth which 
lies concealed in it, will learn much which would never be other- 
wise discovered. 

Pliny tells many a marvelous tale, and yet mixes many valu- 
able facts with his accounts. Herodotus was for centuries de- 
nounced as the " father of liars " by critics who were too igno- 
rant or too indolent to find the truth in his history. When he 
,told of a land in which the air was filled with feathers,"^^* he 



THE NARRATOR OF THE STORY. 451 

himself detected the fact that this was merely a figurative de- 
scription of snow ; hut when he mentioned a land in which it 
was said that men were found who slept six months at a time, 
'^" he could not credit the tale, although it is now evident that 
the Arctic region, with its long night of nearly six months' dura- 
tion, was the land which was described. The value of his his- 
tory is but little lessened by the tales which he repeats of mon- 
sters with dogs ' heads, '^**' of winged serpents,"^* and of ants 
larger than foxes.'"* 

It is well known that for a long period after the close of the 
thirteenth century, when an account of the travels of Marco Polo, 
of Venice, first made its appearance and was circulated, in manu- 
script, the information it gave of countries till that time unheard 
of, and of manners incompatible with every idea that had been 
entertained of the barbarians of Tartary, was treated with levity 
or ridicule by the generality of his countrymen, and read with 
suspicion by the best-instructed persons in every part of Europe ; 
''** and yet the general truth of his account is now recognized by 
all scholars, notwithstanding his description of the rukh, or roc, of 
the Arabian Nights, a bird so large and strong as to seize an ele- 
phant with its talons and to lift it into the air ;'"' of oxen '™^ as 
large as elephants ;'"' of men with tails,'*" and of dogs the size of 
asses.'**" 

Sir John Maundevile repeats Pliny's accounts of the land in- 
habited by people having but one foot,'*^ of the Cynoccephali, 
'^'-'^ of the one-eyed people,'*^" of the Androgynes, and others, and 
also repeats other wild stories that he has heard, such as those re- 
garding two-headed geese, and hens without feathers, but having 
wool, etc. ; and yet Maundevile repeated his marvels in good 
faith, and added much to our knowledge of the condition of Asia 
during the middle centuries. 

Caesar's accounts of his military expeditions are not discred- 
ited because he indulges in a few wonderful tales, such as the 
following : 

" There is an ox of the form of a deer, from the middle of the 
forehead of which, between the ears, there rises a single horn 
higher and straighter than the horns of any of the animals known 
to us, and, from its summit, palm-like branches are widely spread 
out. The ajjpearance of the male and female is the same, and 
the form and size of their horns are similar." "* 



452 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

"There are also animals that are called ' cdces^ (elks), of 
which the figure and the varied skins resemble those of the deer, 
but their size is somewhat greater ; they shed their horns, and 
their legs are without joints or articulations. They do not lie 
down to rest, and, if they fall down, or are thrown down by 
any accident, they are not able to rise. The trees serve them 
for beds ; they lean against them, and thus, slightly reclining, 
they take their rest. When the hunters discover from their 
tracks the places to which they are accustomed to resort, they 
either undermine all the trees at the roots, or they cut into them 
so far that the upper part has only the appearance of standing 
firmly, and, when the animals lean against them, according to 
their habit, the weakened trees are overthrown by their weight, 
and they fall to the ground together." ®" 

Any one who has seen deer, antelope, or elks, cantering along 
at a little distance, will easily discover the grain of fact upon 
which this ridiculous story is based. These animals leap so 
nimbly that the slight fraction of a second during which their 
legs are bent is too short to enable the eye to detect the motion, 
and the animals appear to be bounding along stiff -legged, as if 
they were thrown forward by springs. One seeing them leaping 
along in this style would imagine that " their legs are without 
joints or articulations." Caesar evidently reached this conclu- 
sion ; but then came the question. How, then, could they lie down 
to sleep, or rise again, being down, without levers to lift them 
up ? Imagine imperial Caesar asking this question of some griz- 
zly, bare-limbed Gaul, and unsuspectingly writing down the out- 
rageous reply of the fun-loving barbarian, who dared to gravely 
jest with the conqueror of the world ! 

The accounts of the discovery of " Vinland " by the North- 
men or Icelanders, about the year 1000 a. d., are now generally 
believed, and, undoubtedly, with good reason ; and yet there are 
many difficulties in the stories that have never been explained 
away. They speak of finding " wheat," ^^^^ but do not describe it 
as being remarkable in any way ; *'^ and they make no mention 
of maize, unless it is considered as thus referred to. They say 
that no snow fell during the winter,*'^* and that cattle found 
their food throughout the winter in the open field, thus describ- 
ing the winters as very different from those which now occur 
in this country. They describe Rhode Island or Massachusetts 



THE KARRATOR OF THE STORY. 453 

as being inhabited, not by Indians/'^* but by Esquimaux/'^' 
and this at a time when the Esquimaux had not reached Green- 
land.^'"'' Four names are given ^'^^ which seem never to have 
been identified with any American language. They state that 
the " Skrellings " had a sort of war-sling. They elevated on a 
pole a tremendously large ball, almost the size of a sheep's stom- 
ach, and of a bluish colour ; this they swung from the pole upon 
land and over Karlsefne's people, and it descended with a fearful 
crash, striking terror into the Northmen as they fled along the 
river. '''^^ Schoolcraft, to be sure, states that,"" many generations 
ago, the natives used to sew up a round bowlder in the skin of 
an animal, and hang it upon a pole which was borne by several 
warriors, and which, when brought down suddenly upon a group 
of men, produced consternation and death ; but there is strong 
reason for believing that the Northmen's account was his only 
authority for the statement, as it is certain that nothing of the 
kind is mentioned by any other writer. 

Finally, we come to the following description of a nation of 
one-legged men : "" 

" It chanced one morning that Karlsefne and his people saw 
opposite, in an open place in the woods, a speck which glittered 
in their sight, and they called out toward it, and it was a Uni- 
ped {Einfoetingr, from ein, one, and fotr, foot), which there- 
upon hurried down to the bank of the river, where they lay. 
Thorvald Ericson stood at the helm, and the Uniped shot an 
arrow into his bowels. Thorvald drew out the arrow, and said : 
* It has killed me ! To a rich land we have come, but hardly shall 
we enjoy any benefit from it.' Thorvald soon after died of his 
wound. Upon this the Uniped ran away to the northward ; 
Karlsefne and his people went after him, and saw him now and 
then, and, the last time they saw him, he ran out into a bay. 
Then they turned back, and a man sang these verses : 

' The people chased 
A Uniped 

Down to the beacb. 
Bebold he ran 
Straight over the sea — 
Hear thou, Thorfinn ! ' 

They drew off to the northward, and saw the country of the 
Unipeds." 



45J: AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

It is a curious fact that, in Charlevoix,"" we find an account 
of Unipeds, (See Shea's edition, vol, i, p. 124.) Nevertheless, 
their mention by the Northmen would seem to require some ex- 
planation. Whether this is forthcoming or not, the account con- 
tains so much that is true, and which could not, by any possi- 
bility, have been guessed by one who had not visited America, 
that the story must be the record of a visit to this continent. 

Major says of the voyages of the Venetian brothers Nicolo 
and Antonio Zeno : "'^ 

" It can scarcely be doubted that one of the leading causes of 
the . . . puzzle having remained unsolved till now has been the 
tendency to cope with outlying difficulties instead of first directing 
attention to the proof of the authenticity of the document. . . . 
Indeed, the authenticity of the document is so preponderating an 
element in the case, that, when once it is well established, the 
minor objections might be fairly left to shake themselves into 
their places as best they could." 

This remark is equally true of the travels of the Northmen, 
and it may be justly claimed to apply with equal force to the 
journey of Hwui Shan. 

At the time that America was discovered by Columbus, Europe 
lay in a singular state of ignorance, even as to the countries that 
might have been reached by a land journey, or by an easy coast- 
ing voyage. Asia and Africa were almost as unknown regions as 
America. The edition of Zachariah Lily's " Orbis Breviarum," 
published in 1493, gives a fair idea of the little that was taught 
on the subject. No modern travelers were considered worthy 
of notice, and all the accounts were based upon the statements 
of the classical authors. Among the countries described are the 
lands of the Amazons, of the Androgynce,"" of the Centaurs,"'* 
of the Gorgons,"'^ and of the Satyrs,"" while Paradise "" and 
Inferno "^^ are not forgotten. 

As to the early explorers and historians of America, Acosta,** 
Charlevoix,"" Sharp,^^^ Waf er,''^" and others,"" all insist that the 
peccary has its navel on its back. Herrera (" Hist. Gen.," dec. 2^ 
lib. 10, chap, xxi) says that the humming-birds, when the rainy 
season is over and the dry weather sets in, fasten themselves to 
the trees by their beaks and soon die ; but in the following 
year, when the new rains come, they come to life again.™" 

Purchas mentions winged serpents ^^^^ and tribes of Indians 



THE NARRATOR OF THE STORY. 455 

who lived to be more than three hundred years of age.""* Her- 
nandez, in his exceedingly valuable description of the plants and 
animals of Mexico, gives plates of the flying dragon '^-^ and of 
the two-beaded serpent ; '"^and Pigafetta,-"^^ Von Nord,'^'^ Oviedo, 
Argensola, Hawkins, de Weert,''^*'^ and others, all united in the 
statement that Patagonia was inhabited by giants, and only dif- 
fered as to whether their average height was eight or ten feet. 

In all these cases allowances are charitably made for natural 
causes of error. Should less allowance be made in the case of 
Hwui Shan, who not only had that liability to mistake which is 
common to all human beings, but who, in addition, laboured under 
the disadvantage of telling his story in a language with which he 
was but slightly acquainted, and of having the text of his narra- 
tion more or less corrupted in its transmission to us ? Should not 
allowance be also made for our own ignorance of the countries 
which he describes, and for the changes which must there, as 
elsewhere throughout the world, have taken place during the 
last fourteen centuries ? 

These questions are asked because it appears to have been 
taken for granted that if a single point could be found in his 
story which seemed to be untrue of America, then his whole ac- 
count should be rejected. When the theory has been presented, 
however, that his journey was to some portion of Japan, then it 
has not been thought necessary to prove that his account was 
true of that country in more than one particular ; and the one 
particular which has, as a rule, been insisted upon, is the ex- 
tremely probable theory, that, when he said east, he meant 
south, and, when he said twenty thousand It, he meant two or 
three thousand. 

Is this fair treatment of his story ? Is it not to be expected 
that some difficulties will be found ? If it is shown that so many 
of his statements are true, that it is inconceivable that they can 
be the result of anything else than an actual visit to the country, 
can we not afford to temporarily accept, as to a few doubtful 
points, explanations which, if they stood by themselves, might 
seem improbable ; and wait for time and further investigation 
to bring about their complete elucidation ? 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 

The former ignorance of the people — The introduction of Buddhism — The changes 
of a thousand years — The two places of confinement — Meaning of the char- 
acter FAH — Two species of prisons — One for those sentenced to death — The 
other for minor criminals — The Mexican Hades — The future abode of the Az- 
tec hero — The sojourn but temporary — The dark and dismal " Place of the 
Dead," in the north — Confinement here eternal — The slave children — Treat- 
ment of illegitimate children and of orphans — Age at which children were 
taken to the temple — Boys at seven years of age — Girls at eight — Chinese 
custom of calling children a year older than they would be considered by us — 
The punishment of the family of a criminal — Mourning customs — Fasts — Fu- 
nerals — Images of the deceased — Reverence of these images and ofEerings to 
them — The custom in China — The absence of mourning-garments — The king 
not fully crowned until some time after his accession to the throne. 

One of the assertions that is made indicates that the account 
that is given is, as to some of its details, rather a description of 
the customs existing as the result of the teachings of the Bud- 
dhist priests, some forty years after they first entered the coun- 
try^ than an attempt to picture the condition of the people at 
the time that the party discovered the land. This is the follow- 
ing statement : 

XV. — Formerly they were ignorant (uncultured or un- 
civilized), and KNEW NOTHING OF Buddha's rules (or religion) ; 
.... but the five mendicant priests who came to the country 
. . . MADE Buddha's rules and his religious books and 

IMAGES KNOWN AMONG THEM, TAUGHT THE COMMAND TO FOR- 
SAKE THE FAMILY (for the purposc of entering a monastery), 

AND FINALLY REFORMED THE RUDENESS OF THEIR MANNERS. 

It is, therefore, to be presumed that the account of the coun- 
try will be coloured with statements as to Asiatic customs, beliefs, 
and arts introduced by these missionaries, and existing at the 
time of Hwui Shan's story, but which have since died out. 



THE mXRODDCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 457 

Sahagun, in his day, remarked with reason that, in spite of 
fifty years of continual preaching to the Mexicans, and in spite of 
the efforts of the numerous priests working for their conversion, 
and the Christian establishments raised upon the ruins of their 
temples, less than fifty years more would suffice to make them lose 
all remembrance of Christianity, if they were left to themselves. 

We may, therefore, expect that some of the effects of the 
teachings of the Buddhist missionaries would be found to be 
only temporary in their nature ; and the real occasion for sur- 
prise is that, as will hereafter be shown, so much of the results 
of their efforts survived the storms of over a thousand years, 
rather than that some few of the customs and beliefs then 
founded should have perished. 

XVI.— According to their rules (of government or of re- 
lio-ion) they have a southern and a northern place or con- 
rrNEMENT. An offender who has transgressed but slightly 

ENTERS the SOUTHERN PLACE OF CONFINEMENT, BUT IF HE 
HAS SINNED HEAVILY HE ENTERS THE NORTHERN PLACE OF CON- 
FINEMENT. If THERE IS PARDON FOR HIM, THEN. HE IS SENT 

AWAY TO (or, possibly, from) the southern place of con- 
finement, BUT IF HE CAN NOT BE PARDONED, THEN HE IS SENT 
AWAY TO THE NORTHERN ONE. ThOSE MEN AND WOMEN DWELL- 
ING IN THE NORTHERN PLACE OF CONFINEMENT, WHEN THEY 

MATE (or have mated), and bear (or have borne) children, 

THE BOYS ARE MADE SLAVES AT THE AGE OF EIGHT YEARS, 
AND THE GIRLS AT THE AGE OF NINE YEARS. ThE CRIMINAL 

(or the criminal's body) is not allowed to go out up to 

(or at) THE TIME OF HIS DEATH. 

The character FAH,^i, which I have translated "rules," and 
as to which I am not certain whether the reference is to rules of 
government or to a religious belief, or to both, has heretofore 
been rendered "laws." This is the natural translation if the 
character meaning " country," which immediately precedes it, is 
construed in connection with it ; for, while fah, by itself, or m 
other connections, usually means "religious canons," the com- 
pound, "a country's fah," usually means "a country's laws, 
rather than a country's religion. Still, it is not certain that the 
words, "in that country" (see characters Nos. 103 and 104, 
Chapter XVI), are not the concluding clause of the preceding 
paragraph, rather than the beginning of a new sentence. 



468 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

This character fah (often spelled fa) is used by the Bud- 
dhists as a technical term for the translation of the Sanskrit 
word "Dharma," signifying — 1st, morality or virtue ; 2d, the law 
or the moral code ; and, 3d, the material effects or the phe- 
nomenal world/'' 

The "Three Precious Ones" are Buddha, the personal 
teacher ; Dharma, the Law or body of doctrine ; and jSangha, 
the Priesthood.^"* 

There are three treasures, i. e., Buddha, the Xaw, and the 
Church.'*^* This word Dharma has various meanings, but is 
usually to be understood in the sense of " truth." It is not un- 
frequently translated " the law " ; but this interpretation gives 
an idea contrary to the entire genius of Buddhism. The Dharma 
is therefore, emphatically, " the truth." '*'* 

In the Pali canon there is a remarkable book called Dham- 
ma-pada, which was evidently of great authority in the Buddhist 
church. The Chinese translation of this is called the fa-kheit 
KING, the character fa being used as the translation of the Pali 
word Dhamma (the Sanskrit Dharma)}^^ 

Beal translates fa by the phrase "system of religion," in 
the sentence, "Venerable sir, what system of religion (fa) 
has engaged your mind during your contemplation to- 
night?"'"' 

Edkins translates the phrase fa-shen " the embodiment of 
the (religious) law," """ and c'hu-kia fa (see characters Nos. 451 
and 452, Chaj^ter XVI), "the monastic principle." '''^° Other in- 
stances of the use of this character in a religious sense are in the 
compounds " Buddha's fah," for the rites and ordinances of Bud- 
dhism ;"'^ 'Ho develop fah," meaning to disseminate or propa- 
gate religious doctrine ; "'* " fah conversation," for preaching a 
discourse on religious subjects ; '*" " fah clothing," for a garment 
worn by Buddhist priests ; "" " fah assembly," for an assembly 
of Buddhist priests ; "'^ and " fah body," meaning shaven-headed, 
like a Buddhist priest."" 

This technical use of the character by the Buddhists seems to 
make it probable that Hwui Shan, a Buddhist priest, would em- 
ploy the word in this religious sense ; particularly as he might 
have used some other character, if it had been his intention to 
speak of the laws of the government. 

On investigating the history of the Aztec empire, however, 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 459 

we find that the statement is substantially true, no matter 
whether fah is understood to refer to law or to religion. 

They had two species of prisons : one similar to ours, which 
was called Teilpilojan, for debtors who refused to pay their 
debts, and for those who had not merited the punishment of 
death ; and the other, smaller, which was called Quauh caUi, 
made like a cage, for the prisoners who were to be sacrificed, 
and for those who were guilty of capital crimes.""^ The Abbe 
Brasseur de Bourbourg "" and Mr. Bancroft *" follow Clavigero 
in this statement. 

There is no indication as to whether it was the custom to 
build the prison for those condemned to death in the northern 
part of the town, and the other place of confinement in the south- 
ern part, unless such an indication is given in the fact that, in 
the only case in which the location of this prison for condemned 
criminals is mentioned, the one for the city of Mexico is said to 
have been situated " over a mile northwest-by-north of the cen- 
tral plaza of Mexico." (" Hist. Verdad.," pp. 70-71.) '" 

If FAH is understood to refer to religious belief, however, 
then the " prisons," or " places of confinement," must be the 
supposed abodes of the spirits of the dead. The usual term for 
*' Hades," '**" or the place in which the Buddhists suppose the spirits 
of the wicked to be punished, is ti-tuh, or " earth's prison." '-" 
The Roman Catholics designate purgatory by the phrase lien 
TUH, "fire-separating prison." ^^'^ The characters ti-tuh, or 
"earth's prison," which are usually applied to "Hades," are 
sometimes also used '"^ to designate a jail.'*' 

The future abode of the Mexicans had three divisions,'"" to 
which the dead were admitted according to their rank in life 
and manner of death.^*" . . . The Aztec hero was borne in the 
arms of Teoyaomiqui herself, the consort of Huitzilopochtli, to 
the bright plains of the Sun-house, in the eastern part of the 
heavens, where shady groves, trees loaded with luscious fruit, and 
flowers steeped in honey, vied with the attractions of vast hunt- 
ing-parks, to make his time pass happily. Here also awaited hira 
the presents sent by affectionate friends below. Every morn- 
ing, when the sun set out upon his journey, these bright, strong 
warriors seized their weapons and marched before him, shout- 
ing and fighting sham battles. This continued until they reached 
the zenith, where the sun was transferred to the charge of the 



460 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Celestial Women, after which the warriors dispersed to the chase 
or the shady grove. 

The members of the new escort were women who had died 
in war or child-bed, and lived in the western part of the Sun- 
house. Dressed, like the warriors, in martial accoutrement, they 
conducted the sun to his home, some carrying the litter of 
quetzal feathers in which he reclined, while others went in front, 
shouting and fighting gayly. Arrived at the extreme west, 
they transferred the sun to the dead of Mictlan, and went in 
quest of their spindles, shuttles, baskets, and other implements 
necessary for weaving or household work. The only other per- 
sons who are mentioned as being admitted to the Sun-house, were 
merchants who died on their journey. After four years of this 
life, the souls of the warriors pass into birds of beautiful plum- 
age, which live on the honey of flowers growing in the celestial 
gardens, or seek their sustenance on earth. 

The second place of bliss was Tlalocan,* the abode of 
Tlaloc, a terrestrial paradise, the source of the rivers, and all 
the nourishment of the earth, where joy reigns and sorrow is 
unknown, where every imaginable product of the field and gar- 
den grows in profusion beneath a perpetual summer sky. . . . 
To this place went those who had been killed by lightning, the 
drowned, those suffering from itch, gout, tumors, dropsy, leprosy, 
and other incurable diseases. Children, also, at least those who 
were sacrificed to the Tlalocs, played about in its gardens, and 
once a year they descended among the living, in an invisible 
form, to join in their festivities. It is doubtful, however, whether 
this paradise was perpetual ; for, according to some authors, the 
deceased stayed here but a short time, and then passed on to 
Mictlan ; while the children, balked of their life by death or 
sacrifice, were allowed to essay it again. 

The third destination of the dead, provided for those who 
died of ordinary diseases or old age, and, accordingly, for the 
great majority, was Mictlan, " the Place of the Dead," which is 
described as a vast pathless place, a land of darkness and desola- 
tion, where the dead, after their time of probation, are sunk in a 
sleep that knows no waking. In addressing the corpse, they 
spoke of this place of Mictlan as " a most obscure land, where 

* Tlalocan is the name given by some old writers to the country between Chi- 
apas and Oajaca.™' 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 461 

light Cometh not, and whence none can ever return." ... The 
indications are that Mictlan was situated in the antipodean re- 
gions, or rather in the center of the earth, to which the term 
" Dark and Pathless Region " also applies. This is the supposi- 
tion of Clavigero,'"*® who bases it on the fact ihsitTlalxicco, the 
name of Mictlantecutli's temple, signifies " center or bowels of 
the earth." But Sahagun and others place it in the north, and 
support this assertion by showing that Mictlampa signifies 
" north." The fact that the people turned the face to the north 
when calling upon the dead, is strongly in favour of this theory. 

McCulloh **'' and others give a similar account of the religious 
belief of the Aztecs. 

It is evident that these three abodes of the dead are re- 
ducible to only two, which are radically distinct from each 
other : a land of bliss, situated in the region in which the sun is 
placed — a country of "perpetual summer" (and, therefore, nec- 
essarily in the soiith)^ which could be left by the spirits of the 
dead after a time ; and a dark and gloomy region, " a place of 
punishment," ^*^ from which there was no escape. 

The Central Americans say that the future life is divided into 
good and bad. The first is for the good. They represent it as 
a life of delights, where they enjoy all the comforts of peace and 
of abundant supplies, all the pleasures of the body, eating and 
drinking, without pain or fatigue, under the perfumed shade of 
a delicious tree, where they repose, sheltered from all the suffer- 
ings of the world. The second, <3n the contrary, is represented 
as a place situated below the other, where they suffer all the tor- 
ments of frost, of hunger, and of sorrow, without any species of 
consolation.^ 

That the " Hades " of the Mexicans was located in the north 
is proved by the following quotations : 

" Mictlan, the Mexican Hades, a place of the dead, signifies, 
either primarily or by an acquired meaning, northward or toward 
the north." 3^» 

^^ Mictlamiya — to Hades — to the north. Mictlampa ehecatl, 
the north wind." "* 

" Mictlampa-ehecatl, the north wind, is said to come from 
hell."^" 

''The second wind blows from the north, where the natives 
believe the infernal regions to be placed." "**' 



462 AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

" The realm of Mictla, the Aztec god of death, lay where the 
shadows pointed." ^"^ 

" It is believed that the dead go to the north. It is for 
this reason that, among their superstitious practices regarding 
the dead, after they have enveloped them in their wrappings, 
the bodies of the dead are seated with their faces toward 3Iict- 
lampa, or the north." ^"^^^ 

"In cases of interment [of the Mexican kings], the de- 
ceased was deposited in the grave seated on a throne, in full 
array, facing the north, with his property and his victims around 
him:" '"'" 

The assertion of Hwui Shan as to the existence of two 
places of confinement, one in the north and the other in the south, 
is therefore fully confirmed. 

There is a difficulty in explaining the statement as to the chil- 
dren that are made slaves, and in my opinion it may be found that 
its source lies in the character p'ei, ^^j which I have translated 
"mate." The word means "to compare, to place together, 
to pair, to match,'*" to couple with, to unite," '*'^ and hence 
frequently refers to marriage, although it is not the character 
which is generally used for this purpose. There are some 
traces, however, of an earlier and different meaning. Thus the 
Japanese use the character not only with the signification above 
stated, but also with the meaning " to exile, to transport a crimi- 
nal," and, when it is followed by a character meaning " a place," 
the compound signifies "a pla5e of banishment (for nobles).""" 
Professor Williams also gives the phrase ^ I^ -^ j^ as meaning, 
"let him enjoy perpetual felicity in Hades." '^^^^ Here the last 
three characters mean "to enjoy a thousand seasons," and the 
reference to Hades must therefore be expressed by the first 
character. 

It therefore seems possible that the character may refer either 
to a temporary, illegal connection — in which case the children 
referred to are illegitimate children — or else to the banishment 
or sending away (to an earthly prison, or to Hades) of the par- 
ents ; and in the latter case the children would be orphans. In 
this case it would appear that Hwui Shan meant to refer to 
children born before the parents were banished or sent away. 

It is a well-known fact that slavery existed among the 
Mexicans '^^ as well as among the nations to the south.'" 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 463 

Altbough it is stated by some authorities that the children of 
slaves were invariably born free,'^" there is much dispute on 
the subject, and it is probable that this was a reform introduced 
by King Nezahualpilli, not long before the coming of the Span- 
iards/*^ The statement is repeatedly made '" that parents could 
sell their children ^" as slaves/" and that this was often done, par- 
ticularly in times of famine/^^ 

But little is said as to the condition of either orphans or 
illegitimate children ; it is stated, however, that the latter were 
not allowed to share in the property or the dignities of their 
father,"" and that they were excluded from all public offices/^* 
Brasseur de Bourbourg *" and Bancroft "° both state that 
victims for sacrifices were chosen from among the young boys, 
from six to twelve years of age, born among them, but of ille- 
gitimate birth. De Olmos defines the word tlanmniqui, " he who 
is born a slave or bastard," "*^ thus indicating that the two con- 
ditions were practically identical ; and las Casas, speaking of the 
permission given to the Spaniards to demand a certain number 
of slaves from the Indian chiefs, says that the latter ^" seized 
the children of their households to furnish the number demanded, 
after having disposed of all the orphans, who were sacrificed 
first. De Landa also states that in Yucatan the orphatis loho 
had been reduced to slavery were induced to carry their com- 
plaint to the monks. '^^* 

If, therefore, Hwui Shan meant to refer either to illegitimate 
children, or to orphans who were left behind when their jjarents 
were banished to the place of confinement in the north (i. e., to 
the land of the dead), it seems quite possible that his statement, 
that they were made slaves, is true. 

There is nothing to show the exact age when slave-children 
were compelled to commence active labour, but it may reason- 
ably be supposed to have been at about the same age as that at 
which their more fortunate companions were first sent to school. 
Cortez states this age to have been " seven or eight years," ""^ 
which is the same as the custom in Japan "" and China. Bras- 
seur de Bourbourg says : *^^' " At the age of seven years the father 
brings his son to the priest, and shows him how to draw blood 
from various parts of his body," and *^' " the young girls are 
also brought to the temple at the age of eight years." 

It will be observed that in this case the age of the girl is 



464 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

one year greater than that of the boy, just as it is in Hwui 
Shan's statement, but that the ages are seven and eight years 
instead of eight and nine. This difference is explained by the 
fact that Buddha allowed the age to be counted from the date 
of conception,'"* instead of that of birth ; and that in Japan, and 
(as I was informed by the late Professor Williams) in China also, 
all children born during the year, even as late as the last day of 
the twelfth month, are considered as being one year of age on 
the next New Year's day.'®^' Hence, children, whom the Spaniards 
would call seven and eight years old, would be described by the 
Chinese as eight and nine years of age, and the ages mentioned 
by Hwui Shan are thus brought into exact accord with those 
named by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg. 

XVII. — For a single crime (or a crime of the first magni- 
tude), ONLY ONE PERSON (the Culprit) WAS HIDDEN (or SCUt) 

AWAY. For two crimes (or a crime of the second magnitude), 

THE CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN WERE INCLUDED IN THE 

PUNISHMENT. FoR THREE CRIMES (or a Crime of the third mag- 
nitude), SEVEN GENERATIONS WERE INCLUDED IN THE PUNISH- 
MENT. 

The " seven generations," to which reference is made, prob- 
ably included the parents, grandparents, and great-grandpar- 
ents, the criminal himself, with his wife, brothers and sisters, 
and his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 

This custom of punishing not only the criminal, but also his 
relatives, when a heinous crime has been committed, exists in 
Asia. Thus Hardy says that, '^^^ if one man strikes another in 
the street, he is merely fined for the offense ; but if he were to 
strike the king, his hands and feet, and then his head, would be 
cut off, and all his relatives, both on the side of his father and 
mother, to the seventh degree of relationship, would, be de- 
stroyed. 

As to the existence of this custom in Mexico, Clavigero says 
""* that the traitor to the king or to the state was torn in pieces, 
and his relatives, who knew of his treason and did not make it 
known in time, were deprived of liberty. 

Ixtlilxochitl writes ''" that the children and relations of the 
traitor were enslaved till the fifth generation. 

Bancroft "^ repeats these statements,*"* and the Abbe Brasseur 
de Bourbourg states that *" the robbery of sacred things, profa- 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 465 

nation of the temples, and insult to the ministers of religion or to 
the person of the monarch, were considered as high treason, and 
that the culprit was punished with death, his goods were con- 
fiscated to the public treasury, and his family declared infamous. 
In another place he mentions that '" the property of every man 
condemned to death is confiscated to the public treasury, and that 
his wife and children are sold as slaves, without regard to the 
rank to which they may have belonged, while "^ all treason 
against the state or the sovereign, the discovery of the secrets of 
the government, or desertion to the enemy, brings the penalty 
of death down upon the culprit ; his Avife and children beino- 
sold, and his goods confiscated. 

He adds that "* the vassal who runs away from his master or 
his lord, if he is captured, is put to death, and his wife and chil- 
dren are reduced to slavery. 

Fig. 14 is a fac-simile of an illustration of a Mexican manu- 
script, contained in the collection of Mendoza, preserved in the 
Bodleian Library of Oxford, and copied by Lord Kingsborough 
in the first volume of his " Antiquities of Mexico." The expla- 
nation is given in vol. vi •"*— and in a French work entitled 
" Histoire du Mexique," published without name of author, date, 
or place— that the central figure represents a cacique who re- 
belled against Montezuma, and Avho, having been conquered, 
was strangled by two executioners. The figures at the right are 
those of his wife and son, and the " collars " upon their necks 
show that they have been reduced to slavery. In fact they indicate 
that their wearers were reduced to a particularly severe form of 
slavery, to which, as a rule, only the vilest were condemned.^^^ 




Fig. 14. — Punishment of a criminal, by the Aztecs. 
30 



4:66 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

xviii. fok a fathek, mother, wife, ok son they mourjf 

fob seven days, without eating. fob a grandfather or 
grandmother they mourn for five days, without eating. 
For an elder brother, younger brother, father's elder 

BROTHER OR FATHEr's YOUNGER BROTHER, OR FOR THE CORRE- 
SPONDING FEMALE RELATIVES, OR FOR AN ELDER SISTER OR 
YOUNGER SISTER, THREE DAYS, WITHOUT EATING. ThEY SET UP 

AN IMAGE OF THE SPIRIT (of the deceased person), and rever- 
ence IT, AND OFFER LIBATIONS TO IT MORNING AND EVENING. 
In THEIR MOURNING USAGES THEY DO NOT WEAR MOURNING-GAR- 
MENTS OR MOURNING-BADGES. A KING WHO INHERITS THE 
THRONE DOES NOT OCCUPY HIMSELF WITH THE AFFAIRS OF THE 
GOVERNMENT FOR THE FIRST THREE YEARS AFTER HIS ACCESSION. 

According to Brasseur de Bourbonrg,**® the Mayas had a 
horrible fear of death. When they had lost a relative, they 
wept for four days together, maintaining a sorrowful silence 
during the day-time, and spending the nights in dolorous wail- 
ings. During this time the wife of the deceased, if she was nurs- 
ing a child, retained her milk, not permitting the child to suckle ; 
the fifth day a priest came to say that the dead was with the gods, 
and that it was time to proceed with his funeral. De Landa adds 
that they observed abstinences and fasts for the deceased, 
especially in the case of a husband who mourned the loss of his 
wife.'"^ 

For the death of a chief, or any of his family, the Pipiles 
lamented for four days, silently by day and with loud cries by 
night. At dawn, on the fifth day, the high-priest publicly for- 
bade the people to make any further demonstration of sorrow, 
saying that the soul of the departed was now with the gods.''^^ 
In Michoacan all remained seated, for five days, with bowed heads, 
without uttering a word, except the grandees, who went in turn 
by night to watch and mourn at the grave."" Upon the graves 
were placed flags, ornaments, and various offerings of food, dur- 
ing the four days of mourning. Visits of condolence, with attend- 
ant feasting, extended over a period of several days, however.''^' 
The dead had a difficult road to travel before reaching their 
future abode, which was on the fifth day after the burial.^^' 
On that day, before daybreak, a grand procession formed for 
the temple.*" 

If a Mexican merchant was killed by the enemy while he was 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 467 

on a journey, his family made a mannikin of splinters of pine, 
such as were used for torches. These were fastened together 
and covered with cloth. When made, the puppet was clothed 
with the garments of the defunct, and then was carried to 
the temple. Here it was left for all of one day, during which 
his friends wept over it as if it were the real corpse of the de- 
ceased merchant. At midnight the mannikin was taken and 
burned in the court of Quauhxicalco and the ashes were interred 
as usual.'" 

Although cremation was frequently resorted to in later days, 
it seems to have been, at the time of the invasion by the Span- 
iardsj a comparatively recent custom, and it is asserted that the 
Toltecs who remained in the country after the destruction of the 
empire adhered to interment, as did the early Chichimecs,"^ 

According to Clavigero, when a king died they cut off some 
of his hair, which, with some that had been cut off in his infancy, 
they preserved in a little box, to perpetuate, as they stated, the 
memory of the deceased. Upon the box they placed the image 
of the deceased, made of wood, or else of stone.'"" 

Brasseur de Bourbourg says that,"" as soon as a king died, a 
statue was always made in his image and placed upon the bed of 
state."'^ The chiefs of the senate, having the Cihuacohuatl at 
their head, first paid their homage to it. It was then stripped of 
its garments, and, after being washed from head to foot with 
blue water, was reclothed and crowned with a diadem ornament- 
ed with a heron's plume. The singers approached it in turn, 
having their faces tinted blue, and bearing flowers and perfumes 
in their hands, to chant the praises of the king. . . . Both the 
body and the statue were then transported to the temple of 
Huitzilopochtli. 

Bancroft gives the following account of the obsequies of a 
king or chief ; **' " When the body had been thoroughly burned, 
the fire was quenched, the blood collected from the victims being 
used for this purpose, according to Duran, and the ashes, sprinkled 
with holy water, were placed with the charred bones, stones, and 
melted jewelry, in the urn or casket, which contained also the 
hair of the deceased. On the top of this was placed a statue of 
wood or stone, attired in the royal habiliments, and bearing the 
mask and insignia, and the casket was deposited, at the feet of 
the patron deity, in the chapel. On the return of the procession, 



468 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

a grand banquet was given to the guests, ending as usual with a 
presentation of gifts. For four days the mourners paid constant 
visits to the shrine, to manifest their sorrow, and to present the 
offerings of food, clothes, or jewels." 

In Yucatan, people of condition made wooden statues of 
their parents, of which the occiput was hollow ; they burned a 
part of the body, and deposited the ashes in this receptacle, and 
closed the opening. They preserved these statues, with much 
veneration, among the idols, and kept both statues and idols in 
the oratorios of their houses, where they were looked upon with 
tenderness as well as reverence. On all feast-days and days 
of general rejoicing they made offerings of food to them.'*'^ 

It is manifest from these statements that the Mexicans and 
natives of Yucatan had a well-defined period of mourning, which 
was usually of five days' duration. The early chroniclers would 
hardly have paid attention to the deaths of the common people ; 
and the customs of the indigenes were so soon swept out of exist- 
ence, that periods of seven days' mourning for the nearer rela- 
tives, and three days for the more distant, may have existed un- 
noticed. 

The practice of making an image of the dead, which is men- 
tioned by Hwui Shan, and the reverence bestowed upon it, re- 
call a similar custom existing in China, which is probably to be 
found in other Asiatic countries also. From the quotations 
given above, it appears that this custom, with some modification 
and distortion, survived in America until the sixteenth century. 

As no mention of the use of mourning-garments in Mexico is 
made by any of the historians, it is evident that the Aztecs 
did not wear them. In China the mourning-dress consists of 
coarse, unbleached linen robes and a white girdle.^'* This refer- 
ence to the absence of mourning-garments is conclusive proof 
that Fu-sang can not have been any part of Japan ; for, as will 
be hereafter shown, the Japanese used them from the earliest 
dates mentioned in their histories, Klaproth must have been ac- 
quainted with this fact, and it is, therefore, somewhat amusing 
to observe the discretion which he exhibited in omitting from 
his translation the clause which states that mourning-garments 
were not worn in Fu-sang, 

The custom of prohibiting the king from actively engaging 
in government affairs, for some time after his accession to the 



THE INTRODUCTION" OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 469 

throne, was probably of Asiatic origin. At the time of the Span- 
ish conquest, it was the rule in Mexico that,*'* before the corona- 
tion of a new monarch could be celebrated with fitting solemnity, 
and in a manner worthy of his predecessors, victims for sacrifice 
must be captured in large numbers ; it had become an established 
custom for each newly elected king to undertake, in person, a 
campaign with the sole object of procuring captives,'" and it 
was always required that he should obtain some victory over his 
enemies, or reduce some neighbouring or rebellious province to 
subjection, before he could be crowned, or ascend the royal 
throne.^^^® Special mention is made of an expedition of this na- 
ture against the Chalcas, undertaken by Montezuma before his 
coronation.**^ 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. — (Concluded.) 

The colour of the king's garments — Colours in Asia — Green and blue confounded — 
The dyes used by the Mexicans — Changes of the king's garments — Dresses of 
different colours for different occasions — Various species of mantles worn — 
Changes because of superstitious ideas — Length of the " year " — Divisions of 
the day — The marriage ceremonies — Chinese customs — Mexican customs at- 
tributed to Quetzalcoatl — Mexican weddings — The horse-carts, cattle-carts, 
C' and deer-carts — Difficulties of this passage — Explanations suggested — The 
introduction of the horse into America — Extinct species of horses in Ameri- 
ca — Indian traditions — Name may have been applied to some other animal — 
Mirage — The Buddhist description of the " three carts " or " three vehicles." 

Having thus examined the account of the king's coronation, 
we may now turn back to the description of his clothing, 

XIX, — The colour of the king's garments is changed 

ACCORDING TO THE MUTATIONS OF THE TEARS. ThE FIRST AND 

SECOND TEARS (of a tcu-jear cycle) thet are blue (or green) ; 

THE THIRD AND FOURTH TEARS THET ARE RED ; THE FIFTH AND 
SIXTH TEARS, TELLOW ; THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH TEARS, WHITE ; 
AND THE NINTH AND TENTH TEARS, BLACK, 

This connection between certain colours and the divisions 
of time exists among a great number of the nations of Asia, and 
the order of enumeration of the colours is, usually, exactly that 
above named, i. e,, blue, red, yellow, white, and black,'^ Klap- 
roth ^^^ mentions the same symbolism of the years of a ten-year 
cycle, by the five colours above named, among the Mongols, 
that Hwui Shan says was recognized by the dress of the king 
of Fu-sang. The ten years were by the Tartars designated re- 
spectively by the colours blue and bluish, red and reddish, yel- 
low and yellowish, white and whitish, and black and blackish. 
Hue, also, repeats the statement that,'"® among the Tartars and 
Thibetans, the signs of the denary cycle are expressed by the 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 471 

names of the five elements repeated twice, or by the names of 
the five colours with their shades. 

The Chinese emperor, acting as a high-priest,"' when he wor- 
ships heaven, wears robes of azure colour, in allusion to the sky. 
When he worships the earth, his robes are yellow, to represent 
the clay of this earthly clod. "When the sun is the object, his 
dress is red ; and for the moon he wears a pale white. 

Neither the Chinese nor the Mexicans discriminated between 
different colours to a refined extent, both failing to distinguish 
green from blue,^" and the two colours are therefore, in both 
languages, designated by the same word. 

Brinton says that in Central America *" the names of the five 
main colours are constantly recurring as signs and metaphors. 
They are white, black, red, green, and yellow. The poverty of 
this list was eked out by certain terminations which modified 
the force of the root indicating that the colour was light or 
shaded toward white. 

It is almost impossible to doubt that the coincidence of the 
connection of the divisions of time with five colours in a certain 
order, which existed both in Asia and Fu-sang, must have been 
the result of the introduction of . the custom into Fu-sang from 
Asia — probably by the five Buddhist priests themselves. 

In the preparation of dyes and paints by the Mexicans, min- 
eral, animal, and vegetable colours were all employed, the latter 
extracted from woods, barks, leaves, flowers, and fruits. In the 
art of dyeing they probably excelled the Europeans, and many of 
their dyes have, since the conquest, been introduced throughout 
the world. Chief among these was the cochineal, nochiztle, an 
insect fed by the ISTahuas on the leaves of the nopal, from -which 
they obtained beautiful and permanent red and purple colours 
for their cotton fabrics. The flower of the matlalxihuitl sup- 
plied blue shades ; indigo was the sediment of water in which 
branches of the xiuhquilqntzahuac had been soaked ; seeds of 
the aohiotl boiled in water yielded a red, the French roucou ; 
ocher, or tecozahuitl^ furnished yellow, as did also the plant xochi- 
palli, the latter being changed to orange by the use of nitre ; 
other shades were produced by the use of alum ; the stones 
chimaltizatl and tizatlalu, being calcined, produced something 
like Spanish white ; black was obtained from a stinking mineral, 
tlaliac, or from the soot of a pine, called ocotV^^ 



472 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Sahagun ^^"^ gives a long description of the colours and dyes 
used by the Mexicans, and says that "" they include cochineal 
and sevei'al other red colours, yellow and a light golden colour, 
black, indigo and other blues and greens, violet, and fawn colour. 
Palacio tells us of priestly robes in Salvador of different colours, 
black, blue, green, red, and yellow."* 

It is said that among the Mexicans the king changed his dress 
four times each day, and that a dress once worn could never be 
used again,'^* Concerning this custom, Peter Martyr, translated 
into the quaintest of English, writes : " Arising from his bed, he 
is cloathed after one manner, as he commeth forthe to bee scene, 
and returning backe into his chamber after he hath dined, he 
changeth his garments ; and when he commeth forthe againe to 
supper hee taketh another, and returning back againe the fourth, 
which he weareth vntill he goe to bed. But concerning his gar- 
ments, which he changeth every day, many of them that returned 
have reported the same vnto me with their owne mouth ; but 
howsoeuer it be, all agree in the changing of garments, that be- 
ing once taken into the wardrope, they are there jjiled yp on 
heaps, not likely to see the face of Muteczuma any more." 

In fact, there appears to have been a different dress for every 
occasion.''"* We are told, for instance, that when going to the 
temple the king wore a white mantle, another when going to 
preside at the court of justice, and here he again changed his 
dress, according as the case before the court was a civil or crimi- 
nal suit. Sahagun also states that the king, when offering in- 
cense to the god Huitzilopochtli, during the ceremony of anoint- 
ment, was dressed in a tunic of dark-green cloth. The veil was 
also of green cloth, ornamented with skulls and bones, and, in 
addition to the articles described by other writers, this author 
mentions that they placed dark-green sandals upon his feet. 
("Hist. Gen.," tome ii, p. 319.) ""> 

Cortez says that Muteczuma was dressed every day in four 
different suits, entirely new, which he never wore a second time ; ™^ 
but Diaz makes the much more probable statement that '^"' a gar- 
ment which the Mexican king had worn one day was not per- 
mitted to be brought to him again earlier than after four days. 

Sahagun,''^''* in the eighth chapter of his eighth book, de- 
scribes sixteen species of mantles used for clothing the kings. 
A first species, very rich, called coaxayacayo tilmatli (i. e., a 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 473 

cloak with the figures of serpents), is of a reddish colour, covered 
with silver circles, bearing upon a red field a figure of a monster 
or a demon. The border is fringed and ornamented within with 
figures like the letters S S, contained in little squares alternated 
with others that are destitute of ornaments. On the ends this 
frino-e has small massive balls not very near to one another. 
The kings wear these mantles, and give them to personages of 
eminence, and to men who have distinguished themselves in 
war, with permission to wear them. They also wear other man- 
tles, called teccizyo tilmatli (i. e., a mantle with large shells), 
which are given this name because they are woven with designs 
representing sea-shells in red tochomitl upon a field representing 
the waves of the sea figured in light blue. This mantle is bor- 
dered by a first band, half light blue and half dark blue, and by 
a second band of white feathers, with a fringe of red tochomitl, 
not fringed out, but pierced with small holes. 

They also wear another mantle, called temalcacayo tilmatli 
tenixio (i. e., a mantle having mill-stones and with a border of 
eyes). It is made of a cloth with a reddish-brown ground, in 
which there are woven designs representing a sort of mill-wheel, 
of which the circumference is black ; a circle, made of a larger 
white band, is inscribed ; in the center there is a small ring sur- 
rounded by another of a black colour. There are twelve of these 
figures grouped together, three and three, and forming a square. 
The border of this mantle is formed by a fringe in which eyes 
are represented upon a black ground. It is on this account that 
it is called tenixio. 

They also wear another mantle, called itzcoayo tilmatli (i. e., a 
mantle with obsidian serpents). It has six saw-like figures placed, 
two upon each side and two in the middle, upon a reddish field. 
Between these groups there are figures like the letters S S alter- 
nating with others like O O. The remainder of the entire de- 
sign consists of two bands upon a fawn-coloured field. A fringe 
extends all about the mantle, with a lace-work of feathers upon 
a black field. 

They also wear a mantle, called ome tetecomayo tilmatli (i. e., 
• a mantle having two vases), which is strewed with representations 
of very beautiful and very rich vases, with three feet, and orna- 
mented with two wings like those of butterflies. The lower part 
is round, and red and black in colour. The wings are green, 



474 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

with a yellow border and three small rings of the same colour in 
each. The neck of this vase has the form of the ornaments of 
the vestments of a marquis, surmounted by four small staves 
embroidered with blue and red feathers. The designs of the 
vases are represented upon a white field. This mantle has upon 
its border, in front, two red bands, which cross the white bands 
close together, two and two. 

We will not describe the other mantles, as they are commonly 
worn by all the world. But it is important that we should call 
attention to the skill of the women whose trade it is to weave 
them. It is they who trace the designs, when manufacturing 
the cloth, and weave the coloured thread in place according to 
the design ; taking care to weave in the same fashion that they 
have designed, and changing the shade of the thread in conform- 
ity with the pattern which they follow. 

They wear other mantles, called papaloyo tilmatli tenixio 
(i. e., mantles which have butterflies and borders furnished with 
eyes), which have a reddish ground, upon which buttei-flies are 
woven in white feathers, each bearing a human eye upon the 
middle of its body. These butterflies are placed in a row, reach- 
ing from one corner of the mantle to the other, the edge being 
terminated by a border bearing eyes woven upon a black ground, 
with a red fringe pierced with small holes. 

They also wear another mantle, covered with flowers called 
ecacozcatl, grouped in threes, and separated by small bouquets of 
white feathers woven in the stuff. This mantle is ornamented all 
around by a fringe and feathers, with a border of eyes. It is 
called xaualquauhyo tilmatli tenixio (i. e., a mantle having an 
ornament of eagle feathers and a border garnished with eyes). 

They wear other mantles, called ocelotentlapalli yitic ica 
ocelotl (i. e., having a tiger within, and a red-coloured border). 
A tiger's skin is figured in the center of these, and for a border 
they have a red band terminated exteriorly by a web of white 
feathers. 

The said mantles are worn because of superstitious ideas. 
There is among them one called ixneztlaciulolli (i, e., that which 
is worked in a manner very apparent), and another called ollin^ 
upon which the sun is figured in different colours and embroid- 
eries. 

The sentence in italics, above, shows that the changes in the 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 475 

dress of the monarehs were connected, in some way, with their 
religious belief, and it seems that the different mantles were 
used as symbols. 

Prescott says that the dress of the courier denoted by its 
colour the nature of the tidings that he brought,*"" thus indi- 
cating that his dress also was governed by a similar symbolism. 
Bancroft, quoting from Zuago,^** mentions similar changes of 
garments, even in the case of the wrappings of a corpse. The 
statement is that the corpse was decorated with feathers of vari- 
ous colours, and seated in a chair to receive the expressions of 
sorrow and respect of friends, and their humble offerings of 
flowers, food, or dresses. After a couj)le of hours a second set of 
shrouders removed the garments, washed the body again, re- 
dressed it in red mantles, with feathers of the same colour, and left 
it to be viewed for an hour or more, according to the number 
of the visitors. A third time the body was washed by a fresh 
corps of attendants, and arrayed, this time, in black garments, 
with feathers of the same somber colour. These suits were 
either given to the temple or buried with the body. 

In the case of the customs of courtship, the doubt was ex- 
pressed as to whether Hwui Shan may not have intended to indi- 
cate some other period of time than a year by the character ^. 
The very similar character ^ is used for noon,'"® or the time 
from 11 A. M. to 1 P.M.,'"* and, although there is no proof that 
the one first above given ever meant anything else than a year, 
I can not help thinking that Hwui Shan may have used it to 
denote the fractional parts either of a day or of the Mexican 
week of five days.**^' 

The Javanese, who, like the Mexicans, had a week of five 
days, consider the names of the days of their native week to have 
a mystical relation to colours, and to the divisions of the horizon. 
According to this whimsical interpretation, the first means white 
and the east ; the second, red and the south ; the third, yellow 
and the west ; the fourth, black and the north ; and the fifth, 
mixed colour and the focus or center."^* 

The Mexicans had not only a week of five days, but also had 
an accurate system of dividing the day into fixed periods, corre- 
sponding somewhat to our hours.*^ 

The day commenced with sunrising, and was divided into 
eight portions of time, a division recognized by the Hindus, 



476 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Romans, etc.'®^" The hours of the night were regulated by the 
stars/^'^ and the ministers of the temple, whose duty it was to 
watch them, sounded certain instruments like trumpets, by which 
the town was informed of the time. 

Among both the Mayas and the Mexicans, the natural day 
is divided into four principal parts ; the first commences at the 
rising of the sun, and closes at noon. Noon is called by names 
which, both in Maya and in Aztec, signify the center or middle of 
the day. Oc naJcin, in Yucatan, and Quaqui Tonatiuh, in Mexi- 
co, designate the commencement of the night, and Chumuc Akab 
and Yohual Nepantla the hour of midnight. Each of these four 
parts is subdivided again into two other equal parts, which corre- 
spond to nine o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the 
afternoon, nine o'clock at night and three o'clock in the morn- 
ing. Gama remarks that, besides these subdivisions, the civil day 
is divided into sixteen parts, each having its own name ; eight 
for the day and eight for the night. They commenced at the 
rising of the sun, as among most of the nations of Asia.^^^ 

Now, although it may be admitted that some of the customs 
existing in Mexico in the sixteenth century do not precisely 
correspond with the statements of Hwui Shan, it seems to be 
conclusively proved that, in each case, the Spaniards found in 
Mexico something very much like the custom described by the 
Buddhist traveler ; and I can not help thinking that the differ- 
ences are no greater than would be naturally produced by the 
gradual changes which would inevitably occur during the period 
of more than a thousand years. 

XX. — The marriage ceremonies are, for the most part, 

LIKE THOSE OF THE MiDDLE KiNGDOM (i. C., China). 

In China there are six ceremonies which constitute a regular 
marriage : ^^*'* 

1. The father and elder brother of the young man send 
a go-between to the father and brother of the girl, to inquire 
her name and the moment of her birth, that the horoscope of the 
two maybe examined, in order to ascertain whether the proposed 
alliance will be a happy one. 

2. If so, the young man's friends send the mei-jin (go-be- 
tween) back to make an offer of marriage. 

3. If that be accepted, the second party is again requested to 
put their assent in wi'iting. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 477 

4. Presents are then sent to the girl's parents, according to 
the means of the parties. 

5. The go-between requests them to choose a lucky day for 
the wedding ; and, 

6. The preliminaries are concluded by the bridegroom going, 
or sending a party of his friends, with music, to bring the bride 
to his own house. 

The principal formalities of marriage are everywhere the 
same,^^"^ but local customs are observed in some regions which 
are quite unknown, and appear very singular, elsewhere. In Fuh- 
kien, when the lucky day for the wedding comes, the guests 
assemble in the bridegroom's house to celebrate it, where also 
sedans, a band of music, and porters are in readiness. The 
courier, who acts as guide to the chair-bearers, takes the lead 
of the procession, and, in order to jirevent the onset of malicious 
demons lurking in the road, a baked hog or large piece of pork is 
carried in front, that it may safely pass while they are devoming 
the meat. Meanwhile the bride arrays herself in her best dress 
and richest jewels. Her girlish tresses have already been bound 
up, and her hair arranged by a matron, with all due formality ; 
an ornamental and complicated head-dress, made of rich mate- 
rials, not unlike a helmet or corona, often forms part of her coif- 
fure. Her person is nearly covered by a large mantle, over 
which is an enormous hat, like an umbrella, that descends to the 
shoulders and shades the whole figure. Thus attired, she takes 
her seat in the red gilt marriage sedan, called hwa-Jciau, borne 
by four men, in which she is completely concealed. This is 
locked by her mother or some other relative, and the key given 
to one of the bridemen, who hands it to the bridegroom, or his 
representative, on reaching the house. 

The procession is now rearranged, with the addition of as 
many red boxes to contain her wardrobe, kitchen-utensils, and 
the feast, as the means of the family, or the extent of her par- 
aphernalia, require. As the procession approaches the bride- 
groom's house, the courier hastens forward to announce its com- 
ing ; whereupon the music at his door strikes up, and fire-crackers 
are let off until she enters the gate. As she approaches the door, 
the bridegroom conceals himself, and the go-between brings for- 
ward a young child to salute her, while she goes to seek the 
closeted bridegroom. He approaches her with becoming gravity, 



/ 

/ 



478 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and opens the sedan to hand out his bride, she still retaining the 
hat and mantle ; they approach the ancestral tablet, which they 
salute with three bows, and then seat themselves at a table upon 
which there are two cups of spirits. The go-between serves 
them, though the bride can only make the motions of drinking, 
as the large hat completely covers her face. They soon retire 
into a chamber, where the husband takes the hat and mantle 
from his wife, and sees her, perhaps, for the first time in his life. 

The bridal procession is as showy and stylish as the means 
of the parties will allow,'^"'" consisting of friends, a band of mu- 
sic, sedans, and boxes containing the marriage-feast and other 
things, all of them painted red, and their bearers wearing red 
jackets. The tablets of literary rank held by members of the 
family, wooden dragons' heads, titular lanterns, and other offi- 
cial insignia, are borne in the procession, which, with all these 
additions, sometimes stretches along for a quarter of a mile or 
more. In some cases, an old man elegantly dressed heads the 
procession, bearing a large umbrella to hold over the bride when 
she enters and leaves the sedan ; behind him come bearers with 
tablets and lanterns, one of which bears the inscription, " The 
phoenixes sing harmoniously." To these succeed the music and 
the honourary tablets, titular flags, state umbrella, etc., and two 
stout men as executioners, dressed in a fantastic manner, wearing 
long feathers in their caps, and lictors, chain-bearers, and other 
emblems of office. Parties of young lads, prettily dressed, and 
playing on drums, gongs, and flutes, or carrying lanterns and ban- 
ners, occasionally form a pleasing variety in the train, which is 
continued by the trays and covered tables containing the bride's 
trousseau, and enied with the sedan containing herself. 

The ceremonies attending her reception at her husband's 
house are not uniform. In some parts of the country she is 
lifted out of the sedan, over a pan of charcoal placed in the 
court, and carried into her chamber. After a brief interval she 
returns into the hall, bearing a tray of betel-nuts for the guests, 
and then worships a pair of geese, brought in the train with her 
husband — this bird being an emblem of conjugal affection. On 
returning to her chamber, the bridegroom follows her, and takes 
off the red veil, after which they pledge each other in wine, the 
cups being joined by a thread. While there, a matron who has 
borne several children to one husband comes in to pronounce a 



THE INTRODUCTIOIf OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 479 

blessing upon them, and make up the nuptial bed. The assem- 
bled guests then sit down to the feast, and ply the sin lang, 
" new man," or bridegroom, pretty well with liquor ; the Chi- 
nese on such occasions do not, however, overpass the rules of 
sobriety. The sinfu-jin, " new lady," or bride, and her mother- 
in-law also attend to those of her own sex, who are present in 
other apartments ; but among the poor a pleasanter sight is now 
and then seen in all the guests sitting at one table. 

In the morning, the pair worship the ancestral tablets, and 
salute all the members of the family. The pledging of the bride 
and groom in a cup of wine, and their worship of the ancestral 
tablets, and in some cases a united prostration to his parents, 
may be considered as the important ceremonies of a wedding 
after the procession has reached the house. Marriage processions 
are heard at all hours, though twilights and evenings are consid- 
ered the most propitious ; the spring season, or the last month 
in the year, being regarded as the most felicitous nuptial peri- 
ods. The Chinese do not marry another woman with these ob- 
servances while the first one is living ; but they may bring home 
concubines, with no other formality than a contract with her 
parents. 

The foregoing account is from Professor Williams's work 
entitled " The Middle Kingdom." A very similar description 
of the marriage ceremonies of the country will also be found in 
the " Chinese Repository." ''*^^ 

The ceremonies of marriage which were in use among the 
Aztecs were attributed to Quetzalcoatl, the mysterious stranger 
to whom most of their civilization and of their arts was also at- 
tributed.^'^ (See Veytia, cap. xvii, in Lord Kingsborough's work.) 

The laws of Mexico and those of Michoacan severely prohibit 
all marriages between relatives of the first degree, either by con- 
sanguinity or affinity, except between a brother-in-law and sister- 
in-law.™" The father, having made choice of a wife for his son, 
first consults the priests, and, if the prognostics are unfavourable, 
he looks for another. Certain female go-betweens, named cih.ua- 
tlanque, demand her of her parents, repeating their overtures two 
or three times, and offering presents, until the latter respond to 
their requests. On the day of the wedding, the father and mother 
of the betrothed give her a long discourse upon conjugal fidelity 
and obedience, and exhort her to honourable conduct. Finally 



480 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

they conduct her in poraj) to the house of her future husband. 
The latter comes forth to meet them with his relatives, preceded 
by four women bearing torches, and the two parties, when they 
meet, scatter perfume upon each other from their censers. The 
young man then takes his bride by the hand and leads her into 
his house, and they sit down together upon a mat placed in the 
middle of the room, having a lighted brazier before them ; a 
priest ties one end of the gown of the bride to the extremity of 
the mantle of the bridegroom, this ceremony being the true es- 
sence of the matrimonial contract. After this they walk together 
around the health or brazier seven times and throw into it some 
grains of copal, and return to sit upon the mat, where they offer 
presents to each other. The banquet then takes place — the guests 
eating with the relatives, while the young couple remain upon 
their mat and wait upon each other. 

McCulloh,"*' Sahagun,-^^* and Bancroft'^' all give substan- 
tially the same account of the marriage ceremonies in Mexico, 
and it can not be denied that they present a great similarity to 
those of China, although they are mixed, as will hereafter be 
shown, with some of the customs of India. 

XXI. — They have hoese-caets, cattle-caets, and deee- 

CAETS. 

This is the statement which has usually been relied upon to 
prove that Fu-sang could not have been located in America, and 
that it must have been situated in some part of Japan ; and yet 
it is just as untrue of Japan as of America, for the Japanese 
have had no roads upon which carts of any nature could be used, 
and, until very lately, '^'^ the only vehicle employed in traveling in 
Japan was the palanquin. In fact, there has never been a country 
in which horse-carts, cattle-carts, and deer-carts were all in com- 
mon use at the same time. A nation possessing horses would not 
be likely to employ deer as draught animals ; and the only coun- 
tries in which deer (i. e., reindeer) are employed are countries 
in which horses and cattle could not well be used. 

The statement in question might therefore be used in support 
of the hypothesis of the utter falsity of Hwui Shan's story. So 
many of the details mentioned by him are shown to be true, how- 
ever, that it is impossible to entertain this theory. The only 
alternative is, therefore, to believe that the statement does not 
correctly convey the idea which he meant to express. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 481 

A number of explanations may be given, no one of which is 
very satisfactory, and yet it is infinitely easier to accept some 
one of them, or to believe that an explanation of some kind will 
hereafter be found for the statement, than to think that Hwui 
Shan can have invented the account of his travels. 

First. — The character ch'e, ^, translated " carts," may possi- 
bly have been used as a sign of the plural. One of its meanings 
is, " to be piled up, heaped up by laying one upon another, to in- 
crease in number by adding one to another," "^^ and it is used as 
the numeral for things placed one above another, as boxes, stairs 
of a tower, or folds of cloth."^' The character ;^, differing from 
it by only the addition of two strokes, is employed as the classi- 
fier of " heavens." '°'^' The character J^ (also very similar) 
means " a concourse, a sign of the plural of persons, an adjective 
of number, much, many, all ; ''"^ but it should precede the noun. 
r*Ei, ^, or ^, means " a class, a sort, things, kinds," ^"^ and is a 
sign of the plural,'*" or, as Summers expresses it, is one of the 
characters "used after nominal notions to express plurality."^"' 
Still another similar character, '^, kiun, means "numerous, many, 
a legion,'*" an army, troops." ^''^ 

It is possible that the character may have originally been 
some one of those above named, and that the text may have 
been corrupted so as to read ^. 

Seco7id. — Some of the characters may have been used as 
phonetics, instead of with their usual meaning. Thus the phrase 
may have been meant for " they have ma-ch e-nilt armies, or 
deer-armies"; in which case, if the third character is pronounced 
LIU {I and n being frequently interchanged by the Chinese), it 
might possibly be considered as an attempt to transcribe the 
Mexican word " mazatl," meaning deer.'^'* 

Third. — It is well known that, at the time of the invasion by 
the Spaniards, the Mexicans had no horses, or other beasts of 
burden,"' and that their only way of transporting property was 
by the use of porters.^^^ In New Mexico,"** dogs were used to 
carry burdens."** They were the only animals pressed into the 
service of the natives of North America, and they merely drag- 
ged along the tent-poles, with possibly a few articles laid upon 
them ; nothing of the nature of a vehicle having ever been 
known.'*" The horse was introduced into America from Spain." 
Nevertheless, there seems a bare possibility that this animal may 
31 



482 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

have existed in America fourteen hundred years ago. Professor 
Leidy says: '*" "The horse did not exist in America at the time 
of its discovery by Europeans ; but its remains, consisting 
chiefly of molar-teeth, have now been so frequently found in 
association with those of rodent animals, that it is generally 
admitted to have once been an aboriginal inhabitant. When I 
first saw examples of these remains, I was not disposed to view 
them as relics of an extinct species ; for, although some presented 
characteristic differences from those of previously known species, 
others were indistinguishable from the corresponding parts of 
the domestic horse, and among them were intermediate varieties 
of form and size. The subsequent discovery of the remains of 
two species of the closely allied extinct genus Hipparion, in ad- 
dition to the discovery of the remains of two extinct equine 
genera [Anchitheriiim and Merychippus) of an earlier geological 
period, leaves no room to doubt the former existence of the horse 
on the American Continent, contemporaneously with the masto- 
don and megalonyx ; and man probably was his companion." 

In another place Professor Leidy says that,""* though no in- 
digenous species of horse appears to have existed on the Ameri- 
can Continent during the period of man, a number of them in- 
habited the country just previously and contemporaneously with 
the great mastodon, the elephant, etc. . The name of Equus fra- 
ternus has been proposed for a species, based on remains found 
in association with those of the mastodon, etc., although they 
are neither distinguishable in size nor details of form from cor- 
responding parts in the domestic horse. 

The proof will be presented in another chapter, that a species 
of elephant or mastodon probably existed in America up to quite 
a recent period, and the horse also may have lived during the 
same time, and have recently become extinct. 

;l/ Professor Powers says that,°°^'' many hundreds of years ago, 
according to the old Indians, there existed on earth a horse and a 
mare which were extremely small. The Indians called them by 
a name {sd-to-ioats), which they at once applied to the first horses 
brought by the Spaniards. They perished long before white 
men ever saw California. It is possible that these liliputian 
ponies of the Indian fable were the extinct species of horse 
of which the remains have been discovered by Mr. Condon, in 
Oregon. 



THE IXTEODUCTIOX OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION. 483 

Mr. E. L. Berthoud, in an article entitled " The American 
Horse," *** contained in the " Kansas City Review," for Novem- 
ber, 1881, mentions reasons for believing that horses were found 
in South America soon after the discovery of the country, and 
at a time and place when and where it is difficult to believe that 
they could have been the progeny of any horses that could have 
been introduced into the country from Europe. 

Fourth. — It is possible that the name " horse " may have been 
applied by Hwui Shan to some other indigenous animal ; or that 
he may have seen a troop of far-off animals, and, because of the 
great distance, or because of a mirage, have mistaken them for 
horses. Marcy says that "*" the very extraordinary refraction of 
the atmosphere upon the elevated American plateaus causes ob- 
jects in the distance to be distorted into the most wild and 
fantastic forms, and often exaggerated to many times their true 
size. A raven, for instance, would present the appearance of a 
man walking erect, and an antelope often be mistaken for a 
horse or a buffalo. James states that "'* nothing is more difficult 
than to estimate by the eye the distance of objects ce'en in these 
plains. A small animal, as a wolf or turkey, sometimes appears 
of the magnitude of a horse, on account of an erroneous impres- 
sion of distance. Three elks, which were the first he had seen, 
crossed his path at some distance before him. The effect of the 
mirage, together with his indefinite idea of the distance, magni- 
fied these animals to a most prodigious size. For a moment he 
thought he saw the mastodon of America moving in those vast 
plains, which seem to have been created for his dwelling-place. 
An animal seen for the first time, or any object with which the 
eye is unacquainted, usually appears much enlarged, and inaccu- 
rate ideas are formed of the magnitude and distance of all the 
surrounding objects. 

Some of the early explorers say that wild horses existed in 
Newfoundland prior to the year 1600,'" while others mention 
goats and wild swine in Canada, and monkeys and apes in Vir- 
ginia ; all of these statements being evidently erroneous. Elks "^ 
are called cows or buffaloes,'' and there is scarcely a conceivable 
case of misunderstanding or misnomer into which some of the 
first explorers did not fall. 

Montezuma,**" and the Mexicans generally,*^ called the horses 
of the Spaniards " gigantic deer." Some of the Indians with. 



4S4 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

whom Cortez left a wounded horse called it a " white tapir" ; "^ 
and Acosta,^ Clavigero/"" and Charlevoix,'** "' all compare the 
tajjir to a horse, mule, or ass. Hwui Shan may have confounded 
these animals, in the same way, and applied the term " horse " 
either to some species of deer or to the Central American tapir. 

The horse commonly seen in China is a mere pony, not much 
larger than the Shetland pony ; it is bony and strong, but kept 
with little care, and presents a worse appearance than it would if 
its hair were trimmed, its fetlocks shorn, and its tail untied.'*^' 
The antelopes, which are very common in Mexico '^'^ and the 
western part of America,^''" the females of which are devoid of 
horns,'"''* may have been compared to these small Chinese 
horses. 

I have mentioned these possibilities, not that I think any of 
them probable, but merely because the truth might lie hidden in 
some one of them. There is another possible explanation, how- 
ever, which I think more plausible, although it is not completely 
satisfactory. 

Fifth. — The Chinese Buddhists use the term 3. i^> " the three 
carts," " three carriages," or " three vehicles," for three modes of 
crossing sansara to nirva?ia, as if drawn by sheep, oxen, or deer, 
which shadow forth the three degrees of saintship; and this term 
is further used for three developments of Buddhist doctrine."^* 

One of the notes to the Pilgrimage of Fa Hian says that "^* 
the less translation and the (/reat translation are expressions of 
such frequent recurrence in the narrative, that it is well to ex- 
plain their import : Ta ching, in Chinese, means the great revolu- 
tion ; Siao cJiing, the little revolution. Ching signifies transla- 
tion, passage from one place to another, revolution, circumference ; 
and also the medium of transport, as a car or riding-horse. Its 
exact Sanskrit equivalent is ydna, and the significations of these 
two terms are identical. But each of these acquires, with refer- 
ence to the doctrines of Buddhism, a characteristic and peculiar 
significance. They are mystical expressions, indicating that in- 
fluence which the individual soul can and should exercise upon 
itself in order to effect its transference to a superior condition. 
As this action, or influence, and its results are of different kinds 
or degrees, so they are distinguished into two, three, or more 
ydnas (in Chinese, ching ; in Mongol, Jculgim) ; and, according 
as his efforts are directed to the attainment of greater or less 



THE INTKODUCTION OF ASIATIC CIVILIZATION^. 485 

perfection, the Sanga (Buddhist priest) belongs to the less, the 
mean, or the great translation. 

The vehicidum, which is common to all the translations, is 
the contemplation of the four realities, namely : pain, reunion, 
death, and the doctrine, and that of the twelve concatenations. 
By this means man is transported beyond the boundary of the 
three worlds, and the circle of birth and death. Strictly speak- 
ing, there is but one translation, that of Buddha, the practice of 
which is enjoined upon all living beings, that they may escape 
from the troubled ocean of birth and death, and land on the 
other shore, namely, that of the absolute. Buddha would at 
once have spread abroad the knowledge of the Law, and taught 
mankind the one translation y but he found it indispensable to 
adapt his instructions to the various faculties of those who re- 
ceive them, and hence arose the different ydnas, or means of 
transport. We may, in the first place, distinguish the transla- 
tions of disciples or auditors and that of distinct U7iderstandings. 
To these must be added a third, that of the Bodhi-sattwas, who 
are beings far more nearly approaching to absolute perfection. 

It is to the Tri ydna that the double metaphor is applied of 
the three cars, and the three animals swimming a river. The car 
is to be taken here as the emblem of that which advances by re- 
volving, or that which serves as a vehicle ; and the idea is con- 
nected to that attached to ydna, and the means by which man 
may escape from the world and enter upon nirvana. To the 
first car is yoked a sheep, an animal which in flight never looks 
back to see whether it be followed by the rest of the flock ; and 
thus it represents the ShrdwaJcas, a class of men who seek to es- 
cape from the three worlds by the observation of the four reali- 
ties, but who, occupied wholly with their own salvation, pay 
no regard to that of other men. The second car is drawn by 
deer, animals that can look back upon the herd which follows 
them ; this is typical of the Pratyeka Biiddhas, who, by their 
knowledge of the twelve Niddnas, effect their own emancipation 
from the circle of the three worlds, and at the same time neglect 
not the salvation of other men. The third car is drawn by an 
ox, which typifies the JBodhi-satticas of the doctrine of the 
three Pitakas, who practice the six means of salvation, and seek 
the emancipation of others without regard to themselves, as the 
ox endures with patience whatever burden is imposed upon him. 



4,86 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

A complete exposition of all that is understood by the ob- 
servance of these various classes would be nothing short of a 
treatise of Buddhism ; suffice it that these modes of translation 
are so many probationary steps, by which men are led to a higher 
or a lower grade in the psychological hierarchy extending from 
inferior beings to the absolute. Explained according to Eu- 
ropean notions, the less translation consists in morality and ex- 
ternal religious observances ; the mean, in traditional or sponta- 
neous psychological arrangements ; and the great translation 
is an abstruse, refined, and highly mystical theology. 

It seems possible that Hwui Shun may have meant to refer 
to the " three vehicles " as above defined ; and to say that these 
people who had been reformed, who had accepted Buddha's 
doctrines, and some of whom had undertaken to live in monas- 
teries, had been taught the mysteries of these " three transla- 
tions," "three carts," or "three vehicles." 



CHAPTER XXVTI. 

THE COUNTRY OF WOMEX AND ITS INHABITANTS. 

Stories of Amazons — Account of Ptolemy — That of Maundevile — Marco Polo — 
The Arabs — The Chinese — Similar stories in America — Explanations of these 
accounts — " Cihuatlan," the Place of Women — The account given by Cortez 
— Nufio de Guzman — The expedition to Cihuatlan — The monkeys of Southern 
Mexico — Their resemblance to human beings — Stories of pygmies — Classical 
tales — Pliny's account — That of Maundevile — The worship of Hanuman in 
India — Chinese stories — The Wrangling People — The Eloquent Nation — The 
Long-armed People — " Chu-ju," or the Land of Pygmies — Pygmies in America 
— Mexican monkeys — Their long locks, queues, or tails — Their migration — 
Their bickering or chattering — Their rutting-season — The period of gestation 
— The beginning of the year in China, Tartary, and Mexico — The absence of 
breasts — Nursing children over the shoulder — Young monkeys carried on 
their mothers' backs — Long hair at the back of the head — ^A different trans- 
lation suggested — Age at which they can walk — That at which they become 
fully grown — Their timidity — Their devotion to their mates. 

Having thus completed the examination of Hwui Shan's ac- 
count of Fu-sang, we will next consider his statements regard- 
ing a country situated some three hundred miles to the east. 
These have always been considered so wild and absurd that their 
supposed falsity has been used as a strong argument for casting 
discredit upon his whole story. 

I. — Hwui Shan says that the Country of Women is 

SITUATED a thousand LI EAST OF Fu-SANG. 

It is strange that a story of a region inhabited exclusively by 
women, situated in some unknown or distant land, has existed 
in almost every country. The classical accounts of a land of 
Amazons were believed in up to the time of Columbus, and even 
later. 

Amazonia, as described by Ptolemy in his fifth book, is a 
region of Scythia. The Amazons are female Scythians, who first 
dwelt in the country near the river Don. Thence they removed 



488 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

to a place near the river Terma, and finally they conquered a 
great part of Asia by their arms.'"* 

Maundevile '*" gives the following account of this mythical 
country : 

*' Besyde the Lond of Caldee is the Lond of Amazoyne. And 
in that Reme is alle Women, and no man ; noght, as sume men 
seyn, that men mowe not lyve there, but for because that the 
Women will not suffre no men amonges hem, to ben here Sov- 
ereynes. For sum tyme, ther was a Kyng in that Contrey ; and 
men maryed, as in other Contreyes : and so bef elle that the Kyng 
had Werre, with hem of Sithie ; the whiche Kyng highte Colop- 
eus, was slayne in Bataylle, and alle the gode Blood of his Reme. 
And whan the Queen and alle the othere noble Ladyes sawen, that 
thei weren alle Wydewes, and that alle the rialle Blood was lost, 
thei armed hem, and as Creatures out of Wytt, thei slowen alle 
the men of the Contrey, that weren laft. For thei wolde, that 
alle the Women weren Wydewes, as the Queen and thei weren. 
And fro that tyme hiderwardes thei nevere wolden suflfren man 
to dwelle amonges hem, lenger than 7 dayes and 7 nyghtes ; ne 
that no Child that were Male, scholde duelle amonges hem, 
lenger than he were noryscht ; and thanne sente to his Fader." 

Marco Polo says that,'*'^ distant from Kesmacoran about 
five hundred miles toward the south, in the ocean, there are two 
islands, within about thirty miles of each other, one of which is 
inhabited by men without the company of women, which is 
called the Island of Males, and the other by women without 
men, which is called the Island of Females. 

The Arabs had a similar tradition regarding an "Island of 
Women." '"' 

The Chinese writings mention many countries of Amazons,'^"^* 
one in particular being known as ^ -^ p|, Ntr-xsz'-KwoH, and 
said to be situated to the north of Wu-hien. 

In the fabulous account of the origin of Ceylon, detailed by 
Hiuen Ts'ang, it is stated that two vessels loaded with provisions 
and necessaries set sail from Southern India, one carrying young 
men and the other young women. The vessel on which the 
damsels embarked ari-ived at the western part of Persia, in a 
country inhabited by genii. Those who landed had children by 
their intercourse with the genii, and established the " Great Oc- 
cidental Kingdom of Women.'* '^" 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 489 

De Paravey/"'' after enumerating several countries of Ama- 
zons mentioned by Chinese writers, says : 

" The Chinese books also place an ancient Country of Ama- 
zons near the Caspian Sea." " The Chinese texts name them 
]^iu-moic-yo, and also, by abbreviation, Niu-moit, and in this 
name the character mou is written in three or four different 
manners ; and it was undoubtedly the same with the character 
yo, which originally accompanied it. If the name is written 
•^, NiUy ^, moil, ^L, yUy it signifies ' Women loithout Breasts^ 
and exactly translates the name given them by the Greeks, 
A-mazons (from d, without, and ^a^bg, breast)." 

It is well known that in America the largest river of the 
world took its name from a similar story. ^"' In Charlevoix's 
" History of Paraguay " it is stated that, when Ribera was among 
a tribe of Indians named the Urtuezez, he examined separately 
many of the Indians of the neighbourhood concerning the coun- 
try that lay beyond them, and they unanimously told him that, 
at ten days' march to the northwest, there were large towns in- 
habited by women, who were governed by a woman. ^^^ 

Cronise, in his " Natural Wealth of California," makes men- 
tion of an ancient tradition to the effect that, when the Spaniards 
first arrived in California, they found a tribe, in what is now 
Mendocino County, in which the squaws were Amazons, and exer- / 
cised a gynecocracy ; and Powers adds that he is inclined to think ^ 
that the fable was not without some foundation.-'*" Hervas "^* says 
that among the Chulotecas in Nicaragua the men " are subject to 
the women." Mention is also made '^' of a cape of Yucatan called 
the " Cape of the Women," and said to be so called because of 
the idols of women which were found in a temple there. 

The opinion has frequently been expressed that these tradi- 
tions regarding tribes of women may have originated from the 
contemptuous application of the term "women," by warlike 
tribes, to those in their neighbourhood whom they thought less 
valiant than themselves. The Mexicans applied this epithet to the 
Tlascalans,^"*" when they approached the capital with the Span- 
iards, and also designated the Tlatilulcas by the same term."^ 

A more likely explanation seems, however, to be found in the 
fact that when, as for instance among the Caribs,"" the men / 
went on a military expedition, the women defended their homes 
against the attacks of enemies ; or else in the custom — which has 



490 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

been made use of by some timid and peaceful tribes when they 
were threatened with attack by powerful enemies, or when they 
wished to propitiate strangers — of sending the women to meet 
them, while the men remained at home ; this action being con- 
sidered as a pledge of friendship and security."" 

Whatever the cause may have been, the fact remains that 
among the Mexicans there were traditions not only of white 
men, and men with beards, but also of a nation of Amazons.'*^" 

In all the old maps of Mexico there will be found, upon the 
Pacific coast, the name " Cihuatlan," sometimes spelled with an 
initial S or with the h replaced by g or q. Scarcely any two of 
them agree as to its exact location, the old maps of the coun- 
try being so incorrect that Clavigero says that he did not find a 
single one among them which was not full of errors, as well in 
respect to the latitude and longitude of the places as in regard 
to the division of the provinces, the course of the streams, and 
the direction of the coast.^°" 

In the " Munich Atlas," No. 6, supposed to have been drawn 
between 1532 and 1540, the name appears with the termination co, 
as Ciguatanco. De Laet gives the name as Cimatlan.*^^" George 
Home gives it as Ciguatlan, and says that it is situated in Cul- 
vacan.'*" In Clavigero's map, Cihuatlan appears upon the Pacific 
coast, in the province of ZacatoUan, a little southeast of the city 
of that narne.'"^* Ranking, who follows Clavigero, with the ex- 
ception of rectifying the latitudes and longitudes, places this 
town or district in about 102° 30' west longitude, and 18° 30' 
north latitude, some distance northwest of Acapulco."^* Gage 
places Ciguatlan upon the Pacific coast, almost due west of the 
city of Mexico, and Siquatlan near Sacatula, a few miles back 
from the coast ; *^^' while d'Avity gives two places named Cigua- 
tlan, one near the extreme north and the other near the extreme 
south of Mexico.'® 

Buschmann says that *^* " Cihuatlan" (meaning " the Place or 
Land of Women ") is the name from which the south wind takes 
its designation, and is applied to an old place upon the Pacific 
Ocean, somewhat southerly from ZacatoUan, and to a place 
southerly from Tabasco, upon the eastern coast, apparently in 
the land of Guatemala. . Cihuatlampa is defined as meaning " to 
the west," and the west wind is therefore called Cihuatlampa 
ehecatl {ehecatl meaning wind), and he says that the word in 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 491 

question is derived from Cihuatl, " woman," combined with the 
place-particle tlan, and the post-position pa, "toward, against, 
near"; thus the compound means "toward the Woman's Land," 
or from there here, or it may also be defined as " toward Cihuat- 
lan." *" Sahagun says that Cihuatlampa means " near the wom- 
en," and adds that the Indians supposed that the women who 
died in childbed went to that part of the heaven where the sun 
sets ; hence the term was used figuratively to denote the west. 

The commander-in-chief of the Mexican army, who was slain 
in the battle at Otumba in 1520, was named Cihuacatzin, meaning 
" the honoured chief of Cihuacan," or of " the Woman's King- 
dom." ^'' 

Cortez, in one of his letters to the Spanish emperor, says : 
" Not only the province of Zacatula, but many others adjoining 
it, offered themselves as vassals of your imperial majesty, name- 
ly, Aliman, Colimonte, and Ciguatan. A captain, sent on an ex- 
pedition to Zacatula and its neighbourhood, brought an account 
of the land of Ciguatan, in which there is affirmed to be an island 
inhabited by women without any men, although at certain times 
they are visited by men from the main-land : and if the women 
bear female children, they are protected ; but if males, they are 
driven from their society. The island is ten days' journey from 
that province, and many have gone there and seen it. They 
also tell me it is very rich in pearls and gold ; respecting which 
I shall labour to obtain the truth, and to give your majesty a full 
account of it." ""« 

Nuiio de Guzman undertook an expedition in search of this 
land of Amazons, which, in some accounts, was stated to lie at a 
distance of only three days' journey from the city of Mexico.'"* 

In an interview with the chief Tangaxoan, he, " thinking to 
obtain information that would be useful to him in the expedition 
which he contemplated making to the north of Mexico, inter- 
rupted him to demand a description of the northern provinces. 
* Who of you,' said he, * has heard mention made of the cele- 
brated cities of Teo-Culhuacan and Cihuatlan, where the women 
are sovereign to the exclusion of the men ? ' They answered that 
they had no knowledge of them. * Ah well ! I know where they 
are situated,' replied Guzman, * and I am in hope of going there 
to conquer them, and one of you shall accompany me.' " "* 

After a month's stay at Chametla, the army proceeded north to 



492 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the Quezala province, and thence to Piastla, easily subduing the 
natives of the district. The women were becoming more beauti- 
ful as they continued their course, which seemed to indicate that 
they were approaching the object of their dreams ; and indeed 
glowing rejjorts of Cihuatlan, the "Place of Women," confirmed 
the marvelous tales which had reached the capital. . . . These 
Spaniards awoke to disappointment when they learned, at Cihu- 
atlan, that the Indians had been telling stories to amuse them ; 
that there was no Amazon island or other great wonder there 
awaiting them. Yet for a long time they continued to talk of 
these things, and in a measure to believe in them, though they 
knew them to be false.*" 

Bancroft, in his " History of the North Mexican States," says 
that Ciguatan, " Place of Women," was a province of eight pueb- 
los, on a river of the same name, also called, in Spanish, Rio de las 
Mugeres, and apparently to be identified with the stream now 
known as Rio de San Lorenzo. The name Quila, used in the 
narratives, is still applied to a town on that river. The rich and 
mysterious isles of the Amazons had been from the first one of 
the strongest incentives to northwestern exploration in the minds 
of both Cortez and Guzman. The cosmographer, by his vagaries, 
had furnished the romancer with sufficient foundation for the 
fable ; the tales of natives from the first conquest of Michoacan 
had seemed to support it ; and as Guzman proceeded northward, 
and drew nearer to Ciguatan, his hopes were greatly excited. Na- 
tives along the route were willing to gratify the Spanish desire for 
the marvelous, or perhaps the interpreter's zeal outran his lin- 
guistic skill. The women of Ciguatan were represented as living 
alone, except during four months of the year, when young men 
from the adjoining provinces were invited to till their fields 
by day, and rewarded with their caresses at night. Boy babies 
were killed or sent to their fathers ; girls were allowed to grow 
up. These details, with some variations, are repeated by each 
writer as having been told before they arrived and as corrobo- 
rated more or less completely by what they saw and heard at 
Ciguatan, where they found many women and few men. But, 
as several of them admit, it was soon discovered that the men had 
either fled to avoid the Spaniards, or to make preparations for an 
attack. The Amazon bubble had burst ; but the soldiers were by 
no means inclined to forget the marvels on which their imagina- 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN" AND ITS INHABITANTS. 493 

tion had so long feasted : they continued to talk, long after they 
returned to Mexico, of the wonderful City of Women. 

Lopez, " Rel.," p. 443, says only three males and one thousand 
women were found in one town. Armienta, "Apuntes para la 
Historia de Sinoloa," says : " These towns were found to be at 
this time inhabited by women alone, in conformity with a religious 
vow which obliged them to live separate from their husbands for 
a period of twenty Aztec years." He calls the Amazon towns 
Abuya and Binapa, at the base of the Tacuchamona range, on 
the other side of which was Quezala — confounded with the later 
and more northern Casala. He also describes the i*eception at 
Navito by sixty thousand natives. This narration, written for a 
Sinoloa newspaper, seems to be mainly taken from Tello's work. 

Oviedo, iii, 576-577, heard these tales from the soldiers in 
Mexico ; but, meeting Guzman later in Spain, was told the truth. 
This author says the chief pueblo was a well-built town of six 
thousand houses. He also names Orocomay as another Amazon 
pueblo. Herrera, dec. iii, lib. viii, chap, iii, calls the town 
Zapuatan.*^' 

Gomara suggests that all the stories of this wonderful land 
may have originated from the name "Place of Women."'"'' 
Whatever the reason may have been for the existence of this 
name, the fact is beyond dispute that there was a region of 
Mexico so-called ; and it is a proof of the lack of care, in former 
examinations of Hwui Shan's story, that no one has ever called 
attention to this fact in connection with his account. As to 
the statement that the Country of Women lay to the east of 
Fu-sang, a glance at a map of Mexico will show that the Pacific 
coast of that country lies almost due east and west, and that a 
region farther down the coast than that in which a voyager from 
Asia would naturally land would lie easterly from it, as well as 
to the west or southwest of the city of Mexico. 

II. — Its people's bodies are hairt, and they have long 

LOCKS, THE ENDS OF WHICH REACH TO THE GROUND. 

The whole account of these inhabitants of the " Country of 
Women " is so evidently a description of the monkeys of South- 
ern Mexico, that it is surprising that it has never before been 
noticed. 

Where monkeys are found, the idea seems often to have oc- 
cuiTed to men to account for the resemblance of the monkey to 



494 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

mankind by making of the first a fallen or changed form of the 
latter.^"' According to the Quiches, when man was, for the third 
time, created, the gods took counsel together. It was decided 
that a man should be made of wood and a woman of a kind of 
pith. They were made ; but the result was in no wise satisfac- 
tory. They led a useless existence; they lived as the beasts 
live ; they forgot the Heart of Heaven. Then was the Heart 
of Heaven wroth ; and he sent ruin and destruction upon those 
ingrates. Thus were they all devoted to chastisement and de- 
struction, save only a few who were preserved as memorials of 
the wooden men that had been ; and these now exist in the 
woods as little apes.^"' 

The stories of pygmies have probably all been founded upon 
the existence of quadrumana ; and it is not wonderful that a 
traveler, passing through strange lands, and meeting many 
remarkable tribes, with peculiarities and customs formerly un- 
known, should, when he first sees monkeys or apes, suppose that 
they too are some strange wild tribe of human beings. 

According to Latin authorities, the Pygmies are a small kind 
of people living in Arabia, as stated by Pomponius in his third 
book. As Pliny also writes, in his seventh book, the Pygmies 
inhabit the farthest mountains of India, a region always health- 
ful and spring-like, opposite to the northern mountains, and 
they are greatly molested by the cranes. It is said that, in the 
spring-time, they, being armed with arrows, all descend to- 
gether, in an army, to the sea, and live upon eggs and young 
birds ; being in such flocks that they can not be resisted. Gelius 
testifies that their height does not exceed two feet and a quarter. 
Their females bear young when five years old, and they become 
aged at the age of eight years. ''^* 

Maundevile states that in'^^' "the Lond of Pigmaus, the 
folk ben of litylle Stature, that ben but 3 Span long : and thei 
ben right faire and gentylle, after here quantytees bothe the 
Men and the Wommen. And thei maryen hem, whan thei ben 
half Yere of Age and geten Children. And thei lyven not but 
6 Yeer or 7 at the moste. And he that lyvethe 8 Yeer, men 
holden him there righte passynge old." 

It will be observed that these accounts of the pygmies agree 
in several respects with Hwui Shan's statements as to the pecul- 
iarities of the inhabitants of the Country of Women. 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN" AND ITS INHABITANTS. 495 

Maundevile's account of an " Yle " in which " ben folk, that 
gon upon hire Hondes and hire Feet, as Bestes : and thei ben 
alle skynned and fedred, and thei wolde lepen als lightly in to 
Trees, and fro Tree to Tree, as it were Squyrelles or Apes," '*°^ 
is evidently another variation of the descriptions of the quadru- 
mana. 

The notion of mountaineers with tails seems to have its origin 
in the name of orang uta7i, or " wild men," given to certain apes 
that particularly resemble the human species.'^''' 

In India, the worship of Hanuman, a rational and very 
amusing ape of the Hindu mythology, who, with an army of his 
own species, assisted Rama in the conquest of Ceylon, has pro- 
duced a feeling of veneration for the whole race of quadrumana, 
but particularly for those of the larger class, whose form ap- 
proaches nearest to that of the human race. Here we have a 
variation of the customary confusion, however, as it has been 
conjectured, with much plausibility, that in this case the so-called 
monkeys of Rama's army were in fact the half-savage mount- 
aineers of the country near Coraoi'in.'"' 

Several cases of confusion between quadrumana and human 
beings occur in the Chinese books. Thus the " Wrangling or 
Remonstrating People" are described as a race of pygmies seven 
inches high."" The people of "Lik-pit" are said to be about 
three inches high, having wings, and because of their skill in 
talking and joking they are called " the Eloquent Nation." "^" 

In both cases there is an evident reference to the almost 
ceaseless chattering of a troop of monkeys ; while the statement 
that they have wings, is merely a figurative method of expressing 
the lightness and ease with which they vault from tree to tree, 
for, as Acosta says, '* "they almost seem to fly like the birds." 

The Chinese also mention a country of Long-armed People : "" 
again an evident allusion to some species of ape. One of the 
most unquestionable references to a country inhabited by apes 
is found in their account of the country of Chu-ju, the Land of 
Pygmies.'"* A literal translation of Ma Twan-lin's account of 
this land is given below : 

" In the Chtj-ju (or Pygmy) country, the people are only 
four (Chinese) feet tall (or four feet eight inches of our stand- 
ard). It is south of the Black-teeth and Naked-people's coun- 
tries, which are four thousand li or more distant from Japan. 



49G AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The ship should then go to the southwest for perhaps a year, 
some ten thousand U, when the Sea-people are reached. They 
have black bodies and white eyes, and are naked and ugly. 
Their flesh is delicious, and the tz-avelers sometimes shoot and 
eat them." 

The last sentence has usually been translated, "The travel- 
ers who are plump run the risk of being killed with their arrows, 
and then eaten." The Chinese text, however, clearly indicates 
that the banquet is not one at which the pygmies eat, but one at 
which they are eaten. As the travelers referred to were not 
cannibals, these pygmies can have been nothing else than apes. 

In America, Hennepin reports that some of the Indians who 
visited him from the extreme west, who occupied four months 
in making the journey, said that beyond them there were pyg- 
mies, or small men,"*' Juan Alvarez Maldonado, who made an 
expedition from Cuzco in the year 1561, reported that when he 
descended the eastern range of the Andes, he had scarcely cleared 
the rough and rocky ground of the slope when his party encount- 
ered two pygmies. They shot the female, and the male died of 
grief six days afterward. '^^- 

It will be seen, from the references that have been given, that 
travelers in all parts of the world have frequently described 
monkeys as people, or as pygmies, and yet there are, undoubted- 
ly, many who will be ready to denounce Hwui Shan as " a lying 
Buddhist priest," because he falls into the same error, notwith- 
standing the fact that he gives an accurate description of the 
Mexican monkeys, and mentions many peculiarities which were 
never possessed by any race of human beings ; and one which 
distinguishes them from all other monkeys of the world. 

As to the monkeys of Mexico, the Encyclopaedia Britan- 
nica says that,'^'' in America, north of Panama, the genera as 
yet known to be represented are ChrysotJirix, Nyctipithecus, 
Cebus, Ateles, 3fycetes, and Hapale, in Veragua ; Nyctipithe- 
cus, Cebus, Ateles, and Mycetes, in Costa Rica and Nicaragua ; 
Ateles and 3fycetes, in Guatemala ; and Ateles, in Southern Mexi- 
co. The statement is added that,'''' in the New World, the 
highest northern latitude certainly known to be attained is 18° 
or 19° {Ateles melanochir), in Southern Mexico, but they possi- 
bly reach even latitude 23°. 

Nott and Glidden,'"' quoting from Richardson's " Report on 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 497 

North American Zoology," contained in the publications of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, vol. v, 
1837, p. 138, say that the monkeys which enter into the southern 
provinces of Mexico belong to the genera 3fycetes and Hapale. 
They also mention Wagner's statement (found in the publica- 
tions of the Bavaria Academy at Munich for 1846, p. 51), that 
aj.'^s are found in the southern provinces of Mexico."^^ Of the 
two hundred and ten species of monkeys Avhich were classified 
in 1882, twenty-six belonged to the genus Hapale and seven to 
the genus Mycetes}^'^'^ 

The statement is made by Acosta that " all the mountains 
of the islands, of the main-land, and of the Andes, have an in- 
finite number of Micos, or apes, which are of the race of monk- 
eys, but different from the fact that they have a very long tail. 
Among them are some species which, are three times or even 
four times as large as the common ones ; some are entirely 
black, others chestnut coloured, others gray, and others spotted 
and mixed. Their agility, and their manner of doing things (Jeur 
fa^on defaire), are admirable ; for they seem to have reason, 
and to discourse with each other as they travel through the trees. 

Clavigero says that '°'® all the species of quadrumana found 
in that kingdom are known to the Mexicans by the general 
name of Ozomatliy and to the Spaniards by that of Monos. 
They are of different sizes and shapes, some small and singularly 
diverting, others of medium size, about as large as a badger, and 
others large, strong, ferocious, and bearded, which, by some, are 
called Zanihos. These, when they stand erect, as they sometimes 
do, upon two feet, almost equal a man in stature. 

Hernandez states that '^"^ they are of various sizes and colours, 
some being found that are black, others whitish, and others 
brown ; some being large, others remarkably small, and still 
others of medium size ; others have canine heads, and nearly all 
are burdened by clasping their young. 

It is wonderful how they bend and throw the branches of 
the trees, which they have climbed on account of the traveler ; 
how they cross rivers by grasping each other with their tails, 
and swinging from the trees over the neighbouring rivers ; and, 
above all, how well they, when wounded with an arrow or shot, 
bear the wound as well as men would do, and apply moss or the 
leaves of the trees to the wound,, in order to check the flowing 
32 



498 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

blood, and so, if possible, to save their lives. They raise one 
little one, wbich they carry about with them, it clinging fast 
and they embracing it with wonderful devotion and love. They 
are found near the heights and chief peaks of the mountains. 

If it be admitted that Hwui Shan was speaking of monkeys, 
his statement, that they had hairy bodies, is evidently true, and 
the long " locks," the ends of which reached to the ground, are 
their tails. 

The character translated " locks " closely resembles the one 
since adopted for the Chinese queue. The ancient Chinese wore 
their hair long, and bound upon the top of the head, somewhat 
after the style of the inhabitants of the Loo Choo Islands, and, 
taking pride in its glossy black, called themselves the " Black- 
haired Race." ''*'"* But in 1G27, while the Manchus were in pos- 
session of only Liautung) they issued an order that all the Chi- 
nese under them should adopt their coiffure, on penalty of death, 
as a sign of allegiance.'*^^ The fashion thus begun by compul- 
sion is now followed from choice. 

III. — At the second or third month, bickering, they 
ENTER THE WATER (possibly " come down to the low lands or to 
the streams," or perhaps " enter upon a migration " — the charac- 
ter SHui meaning not only " water," but also " a trip from one 
place to another "). They then become pregnant. They 

BEAR THEIR YOUNG AT THE SIXTH OR SEVENTH MONTH. (Prob- 
ably of gestation, but possibly of the year.) 

Four statements are made here, all of which are true of 
monkeys, and none of which can be considered as to the same 
extent characteristic of any tribe of human beings : 

1. They migrate at a particular season of the year. 

2. They " bicker " or " chatter " so much as to excite atten- 
tion to the fact. 

3. They have a well-defined rutting-season. 

4. The period of gestation is much shorter than it is in the 
case of the human race. 

Audebert says of the Sai or capuchin monkeys, that they go 
in great troops in the trees, and it is particularly during the 
rainy season that they are found thus collected together." 

The migrations of monkeys, and their habit of coming to the 
water, in great troops, in the spring, are mentioned in the ac- 
counts of the pygmies which have already been given. 



THE COUNTRY OF WOME}^ AXD ITS INHABITANTS. 499 

The character ||, king, translated " bickering," was originally 
formed of " words " above " a man," and this was repeated ; thus 
picturing two men talking to each other, both at once. No 
more appropriate character could be used to indicate the chat- 
tering of monkeys. 

It is strange that former translators should have imagined 
that the statement of the text was intended to convey the idea 
that their pregnancy was the result of bathing, rather than that 
these beings had a regular rutting-season, which occurred at the 
same season each year as that at which they came to the water. 
The period of gestation is sufficient to put it beyond the pale of 
possibility that Hwui Shan can have been speaking of any race 
of human beings. In the case of the lower Simiadce, however, 
gestation lasts about seven months, while in the Hapilince, its 
duration is only three months.'^'* 

It is difficult to decide as to the exact months of our year in 
which the second or third months referred to by Hwui Shan 
would fall. 

In China the year is lunar ; but its commencement is regu- 
lated by the sun, and the new year begins on the first new moon 
after the sun enters Aquarius, which makes it come not before 
the 21st of January, nor after the 19th of February. "°* The civil 
year in China ordinarily consists of no more than twelve luna- 
tions ; but an intercalary month is introduced as often as may 
be necessary to bring the commencement of every year to the 
second new moon after the preceding winter solstice.'" 

The year seems to have commenced on the same day in Tar- 
tary, for Marsden states, in his notes upon the " Travels of Marco 
Polo," that '*"' in the " Epochae Celebriores " of Ulugh Beig (the 
son of Shah Rokh), translated by the learned Greaves, we are 
informed that the solar year of the Kataiaus and Igurians com- 
mences on that day in which the sun attains the middle point of 
the constellation of Aquarius, and this we find from the Ephe- 
meris fluctuates between the third and the fifth of February, ac- 
cording to our bissextile. With respect to their civil year, we 
have a satisfactory account in the " Voyage de la Chine," of P. 
Trigault, compiled from the writings of the eminent Matt. Ricci, 
who says, " At each new year, which commences with the new 
moon which precedes or closely follows the fifth of February, 
from which the Chinese date the commencement of spring, an 



500 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

embassador is sent from each province to pay an official visit to 
the king " : by which we should understand the new moon that 
falls the nearest to (either before or after) the time of the sun's 
reaching the middle point of Aquarius ; and consequently the 
festival can not be assigned to any particular day of the Euro- 
pean calendar. 

It has been frequently attempted to fix accurately the time 
when the Mexican year commenced, according to our dates ; '''^ 
but there is no agreement upon this point between the old histo- 
rians, and although many elaborate calculations have been made, 
for the purpose of verifying the one or the other statement, the 
results seldom agree with one another. 

Sahagun says that "*" in some places they told him that it 
commenced on a certain day in January ; in others, on the first 
of February ; in others, in the beginning of March. Having 
assembled in the Tlaltelolco many old Indians, the most sagacious 
that could be found, and the ablest of the Spanish professors, 
they discussed the matter several days, and they all concluded by 
saying that the year commenced on the second day of February. 

As the years were of 365 days, and thirteen days were added 
at the end of fifty-two years, the first day of the year must have 
varied through a cycle of thirteen days, and this 'Svill explain 
some of the discrepancies quoted below. 

In a table, presented by Bancrof t,^^' it is shown that Sahagun, 
Martin de Leon, and Veytia say the year began on February 
2d ; Acosta, de Laet, Clavigero, Klemm, and Carbajal Espinoso 
say February 26th ; the Codex Vaticanus and Codex Telleriano 
Remensis say February 24th ; Motolinia and Duran say March 
1st ; Gemelli Careri says April 10th ; Gama (who is followed by 
Humboldt and Gallatin) says January 9th ; Mueller says March 
20th. In the fragment of the Tarasca calendar, preserved by 
Veytia, it is said that the year commenced on March 22d.^'^ 

There is a similar disagreement as to the name of the month 
which began the Mexican year. Sahagun, Torquemada, and 
Clavigero say that the first month was the one variously called 
Atlcahualco, Quahuitlehua, Cihuailhuitl, or Xilomanaliztli ; ^" 
Martin de Leon, Duran, Vetancurt, Klemra, Brasseur de Bour- 
bourg, Carbajal Espinoso, and the Codex Vaticanus concur in 
this statement. Gomara, Gemelli Careri, de Laet, and Mueller 
give Tlacaxipehualiztli as the first month, with the synonym of 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 501 

CohuailhuitI; Veytia and Lorenzana give the first month as Ate- 
moztli ; and Leon y Gama (repeated by Humboldt and Gallatin) 
names Tititl or Itzcalli as the first month.''^® Other authors as- 
sign the first place respectively to those months which are either 
the last, the third, or the fourth month, according to Gama.""' 

Whatever the month may have been, the calendar was sub- 
stantially the same in Yucatan, Chiapas, Guatemala, Nicaragua, 
and Oaxaca as on the Aztec plateau, thus furnishing a convincing 
proof of the identity of their civilization ; *'* with the exception 
of some variants of little importance, and some difference in the 
arrangement of the names, the days of the month are found to 
be everywhere the same, their meanings being probably identical 
in the greater number of the different languages.*^* 

The weight of evidence preponderates so greatly that the first 
of the year occurred some time in the latter part of the month 
of February, that we can assume with a tolerable degree of cer- 
tainty that the " second or third month," referred to by Hwui 
Shan, corresponded nearly with our month of May. 

IV. — The female-people aee destitute op breasts in 

FRONT OF THE CHEST, but BEHIND, AT THE NAPE OF THE NECK 

(or back of the head), they have hair-roots (short hair, or a 
bunch of hair, or a hairy organ), and in the midst of the 
WHITE hair it is PLEASING TO THE TASTE (or there is juice). 

The explanation has been made that this statement probably 
arose from the fact that in some countries it has been the custom 
for mothers to nurse their children over their shoulders. Mor- 
gan mentions the existence of this practice in the valley of the 
Columbia, and among the Esquimaux, and the Village Indians of 
Colorado."" Petitot says that the women of the Dene-dindjies 
carry their young children upon their back ;'"'^ and Powers 
refers to the custom as in existence among the California In- 
dians.«"« 

The true explanation may possibly be found in the fact that 
it is the custom of monkeys to carry their young upon their 
back, and the latter hang on with teeth and nails, in order to 
retain their places as their mothers bound from tree to tree. 
Wafer says,"'' "They skip from bough to bough, with the 
young ones hanging at the old ones' back." Herndon says 
that,'"* among the monkeys of Brazil, the mother carries the 
young upon her back until it is able to go alone. Dobrizhoffer 



502 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

states that,'^"* in the woods, when quite young, they are carried 
about on the backs of their mothers, round whose necks they 
put their arms, like infants, and in this manner are borne along 
the boughs of trees, wherever there is any chance of finding 
food ; and Dampier confirms the statement as follows : "" *' The 
female monkeys find it difficult to leap with their young after 
the males. They usually have two, of which they carry one 
under one of their arms, and the other, which is seated upon its 
mother's back, holds on with its two paws clasped about her neck 
in front." 

It would not be surprising if a traveler, seeing the young so 
clinging to their mothers, should fancy that they were nursing. 

Long hair at the nape of the neck, or back of the head, 
whitish at the roots, is a peculiarity of some varieties of the genus 
Ilajmle, found nowhere else in the world except in Mexico and 
south of that country. 

The Encyclopaedia Britannica says,'^''' "As to the head, 
long hair is found thereon in Ilapale cedipus, and long hair is de- 
veloped from the shoulders in Ilapale humeraliferP Nott and 
Glidden give a picture of Ilapale cedipus, showing it to be dis- 
tinguished, from all the other species pictured, by longhair at the 
back of the head and neck.'"® Audebert, in his description of 
this species, says that " the top of the head is ornamented with 
long, white hair, which forms a species of plume, which is all the 
more remarkable from the fact that the rest of the head is bare. 

In the female quadrumane there is no protrusion of the breast 
as in the human being,'^*° or, in the words of Owen,^""^ " the in- 
tegument covering the mammary gland is not protruded by its 
enlargement in the form of a hemispheroid 'breast' ; it is cov- 
ered with hair, like the rest of the body." 

Since the foregoing was written, Mr. Saum Song Bo has 
suggested to me a translation of this clause of the Chinese text 
which, while it is not strictly in accordance with the classical 
signification of the characters, yet seems to me to convey the 
idea which Hwui Shan intended to express. 

In common, every-day use, the character J^, hiang, is some- 
times employed for ]^, ting, "the top or tip" of anything ; this 
confusion being caused partly by the great similarity between 
the two characters, and partly by the fact that the signification 
of "top" is merely an extension of the original meaning of hiang, 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 503 

"the back or upper part of the head"; very many Chinese 
characters having, in the course of centuries, had their original 
power so enlarged. Hiang is therefore sometimes applied (col- 
loquially) to the top of a mountain, or the tip of a finger. 

Doolittle's " Vocabulary and Hand-Book of the Chinese 
Language " '^'^ gives ^ f^, as meaning "nipple." 

The characters are so much alike that it is possible that J^, 
HiANG, has been substituted for J^, tixg, or |!^, t'eu, in the 
original text. I am strongly inclined to think that this change 
has been made, or that, if Hwui Shan used the character hiang, 
he employed it with the meaning " top " or " tip " (of the breast), 
i. e., the " nipple," and that what he intended to say was : 

" The female-people are destitute of breasts in front of the 
chest, and back from the " tip " (i. e., the nipple) they have short 
hair (i. e., the whole chest or breast is, with the exception of the 
nipple, covered with hair), and the milk issues from the midst of 
this whitish hair." 

This statement is strictly true, and the common or colloquial 
use of the word gives some ground for thinking this to have 
been Hwui Shan's meaning ; notwithstanding the fact that the 
classical dictionaries recognize only the fundamental signification 
of the character. 

V. — They nurse their young for one hundred days, and 

THEY CAN THEN WALK. WhEN THREE OR FOUR YEARS OLD, THEY 
BECOME FULLY GROWN. ThIS IS TRUE ! WhEN THEY SEE A 
HUMAN BEING, THEY ARE AFRAID AND FLEE TO ONE SIDE. ThEY 

VENERATE (or are devoted to) their husbands (or mates). 

The statements regarding the age at which they are able to 
walk and become fully grown are, of course, untrue of any race 
of human beings ; but they are in curious accordance with the 
classical tales of the pygmies. 

The assertion, that they are afraid and flee to one side when 
they see a human being, states a characteristic peculiarity of the 
quadrumana, and well describes their timidity and agility. Pro- 
fessor Williams's translation, in which he substitutes " man " for 
" human being," seems inadmissible, as the Chinese word J^, jan, 
signifies homo^ not vir. There is no trace of sex in its meaning; 
it is applied as often to women as to men, and it is necessary 
to prefix NAN, " male," or nu, " female," whenever it is wished to 
express the gender. His translation, " They are afraid of having 



504 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

husbands," differs from that of all others who have transcribed 
the phrase ; and there seems to be no reason for doubting that 
the true rendering is, " They venerate their husbands " : the 
character ^, wei, expressing veneration, respect, awe, or devo- 
tion, rather than an abject fear. 

It is well known that monkeys are very faithful and affec- 
tionate to their mates, and many affecting tales are told of the 
devotion shown by these animals toward their mates when the 
latter have been shot.^*'* 

It is very singular that the assertion that these peculiar 
beings inhabited a land called the Country of Women should, 
for more than a century, have caused them to be considered 
Amazons, in spite of the fact that they were expressly stated to 
have " husbands," to whom they were faithful and devoted. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. — (Concluded.) 

The habit of standing erect — The colour of the inhabitants — Albinos — Aztlan, 
" the White Land " — The mountain Iztacdhuatl, or " the White Woman " — 
The Iztauhyatl, or "salt-plant" — The salt of the Mexicans and Chinese — 
References of Sahagun to the Iztauhyatl — An erroneous identification — 
References to it by Hernandez — The salt-weed — The sage-brush — The char- 
acteristic vegetation of Mexico — Food of the monkeys — Cattle and game 
fattened upon the white sage — Its value in Asia — The Mexican rainy season 
— The preceding month of "hard times" — Difficulty of obtaining food at 
this season — Animals coming to lowlands in the spring to feed upon the 
early vegetation — A sweet variety of sage — The use of an herb to sweeten 
meat — Chinese description of monkeys — An Aztec pun — Shipwreck of a 
Chinese fishing-boat — Corean fishing-boats — Japanese vessels wrecked on 
the American coast — The land reached thought to be that mentioned by 
Hwui ShSn — The women of the country — The language that could not be 
understood — Heads like those of puppies — The Cynocephali — Their voices 
— Barking Indians — Their food — Their clothing — Their dwellings — The door- 
ways. 

Theke seems to be some difficulty in accurately translating 
the sentence next to be considered. 

VI. — Its people's manner op appearance is straight 
ERECT (or is very correct), and their colour is (or their coun- 
tenances are) a vert pure white. 

The two characters, translated " straight erect," are defined 
as meaning " upright, either physically or morally." The two 
rendered " manner of appearance," mean " air, manner, appear- 
ance," when considered separately, and "the aspect of one's 
manner, the appearance, air, demeanour," when taken together. 
The word for " colour " also means " countenance," or " beauty." 
D'Hervey translates this phrase : " The women of this kingdom 
have very regular features and very white faces," while Professor 
Williams gives the rendering : "The people are very sedate and 
formal ; their colour is exceedingly clear and white." 



506 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

My own opinion is that it was Ilwui Shan's intention to men- 
tion a fact, to which he would never have thought of referring 
if he had been speaking of real men, and that was the ability of 
these peculiar beings to stand erect. As to the colour (which 
may be no more than the colour of their faces), it is the general 
statement that, while many or most of the monkeys of Southern 
Mexico are dark in colour, some of them are white.^'"'- Audebert 
says of the Ilapale cedipus '''^ that the breast, the abdomen, the 
arms, the fore part of the legs, and the four extremities are white ; 
and of the capuchin monkey, that, while it has undoubtedly taken 
its name from the brown colour of most of this species, it varies as 
to coloui'," there being some which are black and white, and 
others gray and yellowish. He mentions particularly a white- 
throated species, which dijffers from the capuchin monkey, prop- 
erly so-called, by having a flesh-coloured face, and hair of a 
beautiful white colour over the cheeks, the fore-arms, and the 
breast. 

Possibly Hwui Shan confounded the stories of these peculiar 
inhabitants of Cihuatlan with the accounts of albinos which seem 
to have always existed in this part of the world. Wheeler,^^'^ 
Bell,''' Emory,*^'' and McCulloh,'«^« all speak particularly of the 
number of albinos to be found among the Zuiiis ; Wafer gives a 
long description of those found near the Isthmus of Panama,"" 
and Gabb '^^^ mentions the general report in Costa Rica that 
some of the Guatusos are of light colour, and have brown hair, 
one woman being described as being " as white as an English- 
woman." Either the existence of these Albinos, or the fact that 
Aztlan, the name of the traditional home of the Nahuas, or 
Aztecs, means literally " the White Land," *°® may have given rise 
to numerous tales of a tribe of white people to be found some- 
where in America. 

The belief that the inhabitants of Cihuatlan were white, and 
were women, may, however, have arisen from the circumstance 
that one of the highest mountains of Mexico bears the name of 
Iztaccihuatl, an Aztec term meaning " the White Woman," de- 
riving this appellation from the fact that it mimics in its form 
a fantastic dame clothed in white drapery.-^'* The accompany- 
ing engraving (Fig. 15), copied from a photograph by Kilburn 
Brothers, of Littleton, N. H., contained in Mr. Becher's book 
entitled " A Trip to Mexico," "' will show why the mountain re- 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 507 

ceived its name. As all the region about Pike's Peak was once 
known as " the Pike's Peak country," so the district in the neigh- 
bourhood of " the White Woman " may have been referred to 




Fig. 15. — The mountain called Iztaccihuatl, or "the White Woman." 



as " the White Woman's country," and a visitor landing upon the 
coast of Mexico, and making his way some little distance into the 
interior, may have had this mountain pointed out to him, rising 
far off in the southeast, and told, " There : there, in ' the White 
Woman's country,' these strange beings are to be found." 

VII. — Thet eat the salt-plant. Its leaves resemble 
those of the plant called by the Chinese the sie-hao (a species 
of absinthe or wormwood), but its odour is more fragrant, 

AND ITS TASTE IS SALTISH. 

Professor Williams translates the opening words of this sen- 
tence, " They eat pickled greens " ; but in this he differs from 
all other translators, and can hardly be right. As the Chinese 
characters are generally used to express an idea in its broadest 
sense, the same word which is used for " salt " might also be 
employed for " saltish " and " salted," but, while the character 
occurring in this sentence might possibly be used with the mean- 
ing " salted " or " pickled," its more usual signification is " salt in 
taste, salty," "'""saltish, briny, of a saltish taste." ''" The char- 
acter ts'ao, ^ translated " plant," is the word from which the 



508 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

English term "soy " has been derived, and is applied to all plants 
used for salad — as lettuce, cabbage, and spinach — and also to the 
leaves of turnips and radishes when used as greens.'** Hence 
it will be seen that the characters translated " salt-plant " might 
also mean " salted plants " or " pickled greens " ; but the con- 
nection is such that there seems no good reason to doubt that 
the correct rendering is that given at the head of this section. 

When I first saw the phrase, " They eat the ' salt-plant,' " I 
turned to the Aztec dictionaries to see whether they gave any 
term equivalent to " salt-plant," and immediately found the word 
" IzTAUHYATL " *°^ defined as " absinthe," " axenxios, o asensios 
yerua,^'' ""* or " wormwood." *®' This word is evidently a com- 
pound of iztatl^'^'^^ " salt " ^"' (the terminal tl being dropped in com- 
pounding, according to the usual rule), with a form of the verbal 
root hueya^^^ "to grow, to increase." The plant in question 
therefore corresponds, both in its name and in the botanical 
family of which it is a member, with the description of Hwui 
Shan. It undoubtedly derived its name from its taste, which 
must more resemble that of the crude, bitter salt, containing 
magnesia, which is made in China by the evaporation of sea- 
water, ''^^ or the alkaline efflorescence used by the Indians of Mexi- 
co, '^'^ than that of the refined article to which we are accustomed. 

As to the plant in question, Sahagun states that, the evening 
before the feast of UixtocihuatI* (the goddess of salt), the women, 
old and young, and the girls, devote themselves to dancing,"'*" 
moving in a ring, united by small cords, of which each holds an 
end, which are called xochimecatl (i. e., flowery ropes ; from xoch- 
itl, flowers, and mecatl, a rope, cord, or garland), and which are 
wreathed with the flowers of the absinthe of the country, which 
is called iztauhyatl. The French translators of Sahagun's work add 
a note, stating that the plant is the Artemisia laciniata, and is 
called in Spanish estqfiate (an evident corruption of the Aztec 
name). The botanical name was probably given on the author- 
ity of Colmeiro ; "*' but Professor Asa Gray informs me that it can 
not be correct, as the Artemisia laciniata is a native of Asia, and 
is not found in America. 

Sahagun, in other places, refers to it as an odouriferous plant, 
resembling the absinthe of Spain,*"'* and also says that it " resem- 

* This name should evidently be spelled Jztacihuail, from iztatl, salt, and 
cihuatl, woman. — E. P. V. 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 509 

bles the incense used in Spain." ^'^' Bancroft describes it as " a 
sweet- smelling herb." '^^ Hernandez makes a number of refer- 
ences to it, but seems to treat it as a plant too common and too 
well known to be worthy of description. He says, for instance, 
that the tzaguayigneni is an herb having long, large, and narrow 
leaves, divided into five parts, and resembling the iztauhyatl, or 
Indicum absinthium.^^'^ The flowers of the tlanoqiiilonipatli, 
which are described as " yellowish and growing in a thin spike," 
are said to be not dissimilar to those of the absinthium.^^"' A 
decoction of xoxocapatU and iztauhiatl is said to be used as a 
remedy for pains in the joints.*'"' The yztacchyatl, or " bitter 
salt " (possibly a mere variant of the name iztauhyatl), is de- 
scribed ''"* as an herb similar in form and properties to absinthe, 
and is said to be, on that account, indiscriminately substituted 
for the latter in New Spain. Two species are known, the broad- 
leaved and the narrow-leaved. It grows in temperate and warm 
places, and its seeds, having probably been carried to Spain for 
sale, have been dispersed there. It is used to cure pains arising 
from cold, for colic, and for the bowels. Quauh yetl or picietl 
(two species of tobacco) is usually added, to strengthen the inter- 
nal organs ; it is beneficial to patients who are suffering from 
nausea, and to infants that throw up milk. Administered with 
ecapatU, or the Laurus Indica, it acts as a physic : the decoc- 
tion is used to bathe the swelled legs of the infirm. Hernandez 
also describes a plant named the iztauhyapatli, and as '■'■patli " 
means " remedy," the compound is equivalent to " the Iztauhyatl 
remedy," and the plant is therefore very probably the same that 
is elsewhere called the yztauhyatl, or iztauhyatl. This is de- 
scribed as follows : "The root is ovate and ferruginous ; the wil- 
lowy leaves are in fours, long, not serrated, and are ash-coloured 
on the under side ; the length of the leaves is about six inches, 
and the breadth does not exceed half an inch." *"* 

I have not been able to learn the botanical name of the plant, 
or obtain any further information regarding it, but it must be 
common in Mexico. There is a town in that country, in Oaxaca, 
on the Rio Grande, called, after it, Istayata. Morgan "" and 
Bandelier ^-^ mention a plant named the " salt- weed" as growing 
in the adobe soil of Southern Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexi- 
co, which may or may not be the same plant. 

The common sage-brush of the plains was called absinthe by 



510 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the Canadian voyageurs/'® and Bell particularly mentions the fact 
that, in the uplands of the valley of the Colorado River, in Ari- 
zona, most of the plants, including especially the artemisias and 
other shrubby composites, are smeared with a resinous varnish, 
which gives out a pleasant, stimulating aroma, noticed by nearly 
all desert travelers/*^ In this respect, at least, the artemisias 
described by him therefore corresponded with the " salt-plant " 
mentioned by Hwui Shan. Professor Baird informs me that, while 
the sage-brush of the West is principally the Artemisia triden- 
tata of ISTuttall, the term is also applied to two or three other 
species which resemble it, mainly Artemisia arcana, A. arhus- 
ciila, and A. trificla. Appletons' Cyclopaedia *' says that the com- 
mon sage-brush of the American plains is Artemisia Ludovi- 
ciana. Hayden's "Preliminary Report of the United States 
Geological Survey of Wyoming ""^° mentions the -4. tridentata,^^^'' 
Canadensis, trifida, cana, I/udomciana, Michardsoniana, fri- 
gida^^^ scopulonem, horealis, and Jilifolia,^'^^^ as different varieties 
of artemisia found in that Territory. Whatever the species or 
variety may be, there can be no doubt that the iztaxihyatl, or 
" salt-plant," of Mexico, is some variety of artemisia, not widely 
different from the sage-brush of the Northern plains. Those who 
have traveled in Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico will, I think, 
admit that the characteristic vegetation of the country, and in 
fact nearly all of the vegetation that can be seen in many dis- 
tricts, consists of varieties of the agave, or centiiry-plant, of spe- 
cies of cactii (of which the prickly-pear is an exceedingly common 
and representative form) and of the sage-brush. With the ex- 
ception of the last, this vegetation is not only characteristic of the 
region in question, but it is indigenous nowhere else. If it be 
thought that the story of Hwui Shan is a fable, it is certainly 
remarkable that he gives a description of just these three plants 
and of no others. In Mexico and its neighbourhood, plants 
answering his descriptions are to be found, and they can not be 
found elsewhere in the world. 

But is this " salt-plant " ever eaten by the monkeys of Mexi- 
co ? On this point I can not obtain any very positive informa- 
tion, although those whom I have consulted, who are acquainted 
with the habits of these animals, do not think it likely that they 
feed upon it. Dr. Oswald informs me that, although their natu- 
ral food consists of fruits and nuts, the monkevs of Gibraltar 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 511 

will sometimes eat the sprouts of currant-bushes. It may not 
be out of place to call attention to the fact that, however dis- 
tasteful wormwood or sage may be to us as a food, numerous 
animals feed upon these plants with avidity. Many of the cattle 
of the far AVest, as well as the game of the same region, feed and 
fatten upon little else than the " white sage." James mentions 
the fact that several species of artemisia are eaten by the bisons, 
and that his horses were sometimes " reduced to the necessity " 
of feeding upon them ; '"^ and Bell says that a species of wild 
sage, which grows in many places in Mexico, gives the beef a 
peculiar and delicious flavour.^*' Pallas mentions that the^™' 
white absinthium {Artemisia alba) and the camphor-plant {(Jam- 
phorosma monsjyeliaca) are found in all the deserts of Asia, 
covering extensive regions with their creeping roots and their 
shoots, which make a species of turf, like fine moss. In win- 
ter they form the principal food of the numerous herds of the 
Kalmucks and the Kirguis, as they preserve their natural state 
under the snow, which is but scanty in this country, the little 
that falls melting almost immediately. The herds therefore 
have but little difficulty in finding these plants. They eat them 
but little during the summer, as they have a great number 
of others upon which they rely. The Kirguis call these two 
plants jouscha)iii, and take great care to establish their win- 
ter habitations in places in which they grow. This small species 
of absinthium is remarkable for its flower, which, in its odour, 
taste, and figure, resembles the "worm-seed." If this latter 
were not mixed with small stems, it might be mistaken for 
this plant. 

In Mexico the rainy season begins as a rule in the first half 
of May,^" or in some districts not until the beginning of June,*" 
and lasts until October ®^^ or November,^^" No drop of rain falls 
in December and January, and but little in February or April.*'^ 
In the month of May the whole country seems parched and 
^j.y._2052 -jq-Q^ ^ \e2ii^ not a bud ; the branches and boughs are 
naked, and covered with a thick coating of gray dust ; nothing 
to intercept the sight in the thicket but the bare trunks and 
branches, with the withes entwining them. Early in June come 
the first refreshing showers. As if a magic wand had been 
waved over the land, the view changes — life springs every- 
where. In the short space of a few days, the forests have re- 



512 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

sumed their holiday attire ; buds appear and the leaves shoot ; 
the flowers bloom, sending forth their fragrance, that, wafted by 
the breeze, perfumes the air far and near ; the birds sing their 
best songs of joy ; the insects chirp their shrillest notes ; butter- 
flies of gorgeous colours flutter in clouds in every direction, in 
search of the nectar contained in the cups of the newly opened 
blossoms, and dispute it with the brilliant humming-birds. All 
creation rejoices, because a few tears of mother Nature have 
brought joy and happiness to all living beings, from the smallest 
blade of grass to the majestic palm, from the creeping worm to 
man. 

Of the months occurring at the dry season of the year, 
Atlcahualco bears a name meaning " the buying or scarcity of 
water," ^" Atemoztli means " the drying up of the waters," ^*'^ the 
following month, Tititl, was called the month of " hard times," '^' 
and Itzcalli * means " revivification," or *' the sprouting of the 
grass." ''' 

From tbe name " Tititl," the month of " hard times," it ap- 
pears that the Aztecs found it difficult to obtain food during the 
dry season, when the old crop was nearly exhausted, and the new 
one had not commenced to grow. If they found this a season 
of " hard times," the quadrumana can hardly have fared better. 
Living upon fruits and nuts, when they could be obtained, they 
must have found some substitute during the season when these 
were not to be had. Sahagun says of the raccoon that, "during 
the winter, when neither fruits nor maize can be found, it eats 
rats and reptiles." ''^'^ To what did the quadrumana resort? 
Audebert, quoting from Buff on, says that the capuchin monkeys 
are very fond of cockchafers and snails." Wafer claims that he 
saw monkeys breaking oyster-shells on the sea-shore, and eating 
the oysters. '"'^^ It is therefore evident that they are not wholly 
confined to fruits, nuts, and roots. 

"Why did the peculiar inhabitants of the Country of Women 
come to the water at the second or third month, or just about 
the beginning of the rainy season ? In the United States, the 
antelopes of the Rocky Mountain region, which spend the winter 
in the mountains, come down to the plains in great numbers in 
spring to eat the tender vegetation, which first starts in the low- 

* Molina defines Izcalia " to open, to expand, to come to one's self, to resusci- 
tate, to revive." 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 513 

lands near the streams. May not a similar cause lead the quad- 
rumana of Mexico to the lowlands near the water at the beginning 
of the rainy season ? If so, they could not find either fruits or 
nuts, but would be compelled to live upon the young and tender 
sprouts of some one or more species of plants. It would seem as 
if, at this season of the year, no other plant would be more likely 
to furnish them with edible sprouts than some species of sage- 
brush, the iztauhyatl, or "salt-plant." This is of course a mere 
presumption. It is not proved that the monkeys eat the plant 
in question, but it certainly does not seem impossible that they 
may, and, for myself, as Hwui Shan tells so much that is proved 
to be true, I do not think it unsafe to rely upon his statement 
in this case. 

It is possible, however, that there is a reversion, at this point 
in his account, from the monkeys of Cihuatlan to the people of 
that region, and that he means to say that the latter eat the 
salt-plant. Dupaix mentions that, in the neighbourhood of 
Tequilla, he found a species of sage growing vigorously in the 
shape of a branching bush, its taste being so agreeable that it is 
there called " the sweet herb." '^^^ Possibly this may be the plant 
to which reference is made, or the practice mentioned by Gage 
may be referred to.'^' 

" These also will now and then get a wild Dear, shooting it 
with their bows and arrows. And when they have killed it, they 
let it lie in the Wood, in some hole or bottom, covered with leaves, 
for the space of about a week, untill it stink and begin to be 
full of wormes ; then they bring it home, cut it out into joints, 
and parboil it with a herbe which groweth there, somewhat like 
unto our Tanzy, which they say sweeteneth it again, and maketh 
the flesh eat tender, and as white as a piece of Turkey." 

Although it seems impossible, with our present information, 
to decide whether the iztauhyatl is eaten either by men or monk- 
eys, the fact remains that there is in the region indicated by Hwui 
Shan a plant which answers to his description, inasmuch as it is 
called " the salt-plant," and, being a species of absinthe, must re- 
semble the Chinese plants of the same genus ; its taste is saltish, 
and its odour fragrant, just as stated by our Buddhist traveler. 

Identifying the " people " of the " Country of Women " as 
monkeys, it seems strange that mention is not made of their 
size, and of the fact that they live in the trees. 



514 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

It has occurred to me as possible that Yu Kie may have failed 
to understand Hwui Shun on these points, or may have doubted 
his report, and so suppressed what he said regarding them. One 
of the most common names given by the Chinese to a mythical 
land of Amazons is jfc "f^ P> woman-child-land. This is 
usually translated the " Land of Women and Children " ; but the 
Chinese frequently ^^" suffix ^, child, as a diminutive ; '==" and 
the compound ^ •^, woman-child, is used for "girl." "" The 
name of the Amazonian country may, therefore, have meant 
originally the " Land of Zittle Women," rather than "the Land of 
Women and Children " ; and the traditions among the Chinese, 
that the inhabitants of Fu-sang have the power of flying in 
the air, may have arisen from stories of the gambols among the 
trees of the inhabitants of the " Woman's Land." 

We should hardly expect complete accuracy in the reports ex- 
tant in a land like China, in which the most scientific account that 
they have of a species of monkey living in their own country is 
that " its nose is turned upward, and the tail is very long and 
forked at the end, and whenever it rains the animal thrusts the 
forks into its nose. It goes in herds, and lives in friendship ; 
when one dies, the rest accompany it to burial." *^' 

In closing the examination of this account of the Country of 
Women, it may be well to endeavour to discover the origin of 
the term. Several explanations have already been suggested ; 
but none of them seem satisfactory. It is my opinion that the 
traditions regarding the land of Amazons arose from the name, 
as an attempt to explain it, rather than that the name arose from 
the existence of any region inhabited exclusively by women. It 
seems to me to be possible that, when the inhabitants of the 
northern part of Mexico heard vague reports of the remarkable 
beings found in the southern part of that country, they, not hav- 
ing formerly heard the word opumatli,^^^^ "" or opomatU *'^ (for 
the Mexicans always confounded the vowels o and u, some pro- 
nouncing their words with one vowel and some with the other,"'"), 
which was the term applied to monkeys, mistook it for the very 
similar word powa^?,™* ^ohuatl,"* ciuatl,^^'^^ or cihuatl,^^ meaning a 
woman ; and hence supposed the term O^omatlan, meaning " the 
Region of Monkeys," to be the compound Qohuatlan, or CiJiua- 
tlaUy signifying " the Region or Country of Women." After this 
mistake had once been made in the name, traditions of a land in- 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 515 

habited exclusively by women would, almost inevitably, spring 
up. 

Our examination of the official record of Hwui Shan's state- 
ments has been completed, and, with the exception of the short 
account next given, there seems to be no reason to believe that 
the lands described by him were ever visited by any of the Chi- 
nese. Ma Twan-lin seems to have thought, however, that some 
Chinese sailors, who were shipwrecked on a distant seacoast, and 
who succeeded in making their way back to China, were thrown 
upon the shores of the same Country of Women that was de- 
scribed by our Buddhist explorer, and he therefore joins their 
story to the account of that land given by Hwui Shan. 

YIII. — In the reign of the Liang dynasty, under the em- 
peror Wu-Ti, in the sixth tear of the period designated by the 
name Tien-kien, or " Celestial Protection " (i. e., in 507 a. d,), 

SOME MEN OF TsiN-NGAN, WHO WERE CROSSING THE SEA, WERE 
DRIVEN BT THE WIND TO A CERTAIN ISLAND (or tO the Same 

island or seacoast). Thet went ashore and egtjnd the in- 
habitants' DWELLINGS. 

Professor Williams says " a man," instead of " some men," 
and, as the Chinese language does not, as a rule, distinguish be- 
tween the singular and the plural, it can not be determined, other- 
wise than by inference, which was meant in this case. It seems 
more probable, however, that a large boat, such as would carry a 
number of men, would live through a storm which would drive 
it across the Pacific, than that a small boat with only a single man 
should pass through such a tempest. A number of men would also 
be more likely to frighten the natives away from their homes, 
and thus protect themselves against attack by the inhabitants, 
than would a solitary sailor. Oppert says of the Corean fishing- 
boats ^^'^ that they resemble the Japanese more than the Chinese, 
but that they are of rude construction. Each of these boats 
usually carries a crew of some thirty to forty men, but some 
have a crew of more than sixty. 

It seems not unlikely that the vessel which was wrecked upon 
the distant land, that is mentioned by Ma Twan-lin, may have 
been a fishing-boat of the kind above referred to. It has already 
been stated that Japanese junks are frequently wrecked upon the 
coast of America ; but, so far as I know, no other case is mentioned 
in which the survivors of the shipwTeck succeeded in making 



51G AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

their way back home again. It is noticeable that the case men- 
tioned occurred only about half a dozen years after Hwui Shan's 
story was told in China ; and it seems not impossible that these 
men may have heard the story of his travels, and of the route by 
which he reached China, and so may have made their way home 
up the coast of America to Alaska, and thence across to Asia, and 
down the coast of that continent via the route pointed out by 
our Buddhist priest. 

I have ventured to suggest that the characters — ^, tih 
TAG, which have formerly been translated " an island," " a certain 
island," or " an unknown island," may possibly mean " the same 
seacoast." The first character, although meaning literally " one," 
is sometimes used for "the same," and as it is not customary to 
use the character merely as the indefinite article, and as it seems 
evident that Ma Twan-lin thought this land to be the same as 
that described by Hwui Shan (for otherwise be would not have 
included the two accounts in the same section), it seems probable 
that he intended to use it here in its secondary meaning. The 
second character is a picture of a bird and a mountain, and hence 
means " a hill on which birds can alight in crossing seas," and 
thus might be applied to a seacoast reached after crossing a vast 
expanse of water, without much regard to the size of the land. 

IX. — The women resembled those of the Middle King- 
dom (China), but the words of their language could not 

BE understood. ThE MALES HAD HUMAN BODIES, BUT PUPPIEs' 
HEADS, AND THEIR VOICES RESEMBLED THOSE OF DOGS BARKING 

(or howling). 

The shipwreck seems to have occurred at a point where there 
existed the custom, formerly referred to, of leaving the women 
to entertain the strangers, while the men ran away ; and the 
Chinese seem to have seen only these women, and to have sup- 
posed the apes in the woods to be the males. 

Many writers have spoken of the great resemblance of many 
of the tribes of the western coast of America to the Chinese, 
and Mr. Leland discusses the subject at length. 

It is noticeable that nowhere else in the accounts is it men- 
tioned that the language of the people could not be understood, 
and this statement seems applicable rather to the chattering of 
monkeys, than to any human language, of which strangers would 
soon be able to understand a few words. 



THE COUNTRY OF WOMEN AND ITS INHABITANTS. 517 

Although some tribes of savages have been referred to as hav- 
ing dogs' heads,'^" the description seems rather to be that of the 
Mexican monkeys, some of which, according to Clavigero, " from 
having the head of a dog, appertain to the class of the Cyno- 
cephali." '""* It is probable that the comparison of their voices 
to those of dogs refers rather to howling than barking ; but as 
the bark of the Chinese dogs is a short, thick snap, very unlike 
the deep, sonorous baying of our mastiffs,^*** it is possible that 
barking may be meant. 

Attention should be called, in this connection, to the singular 
fact that this same comparison has been made regarding the 
conversation of a tribe living near the northern boundary of 
Mexico. Captain Emory says of one of his interviews with the 
Indians : " The chief person talked all the time in a tongue re- 
sembling more the bark of a mastiff than the words of a human 
being. They were supposed by some to be the Cayotes (i. e.. 
Wolves), a branch of the Apaches ; but Londean thought they 
belonged to the tribe of Tremblers, who acquired their name from 
their emotions at meeting the whites ; '^** while Captain A. R. 
Johnston says of the Apaches, ' They bayed at us like their kin- 
dred wolves.' " '"" 

X. — Amoxg their food was "siao-teu" (little beaxs). 
Their clothing resembled linen (or perhaps cotton) cloth. 
Beating down the earth, they made adobe walls of a round 

SHAPE, the doors OF WHICH RESEMBLED BURROWS. 

It seems not impossible that the characters siao-teu, mean- 
ing "little beans," may have been used as an attempt both to 
transcribe and translate the Aztec word cintli,^^'"' or centli,^^^^ 
meaning " ears of maize, cured and dried." Teu is the Chinese 
term for pulse of any kind,'** and, as has been explained by M. 
the Marquis d'Hervey, might include grains of maize. It is a 
fact, however, that the Aztecs raised beans,'" which formed one 
of their principal articles of diet,''^'* while it was a matter of tradi- 
tion that the Olmecs raised both maize and beans, before the time 
of the Toltecs (Veytia, " Hist. Ant. Mej." tome i, p. 154)."* The 
cloth made by the Aztecs from the fiber of the agave has already 
been described, but they also made cotton cloth.^" The manner 
of beating down the earth, to make the adobe walls of their dwell- 
ings, seems to be the same as that mentioned by Hwui Shan. 
Powers, in describing the houses of the aboriginal Californians, 



518 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

says that ^"^"^ the round, dome-shaped, earth-covered lodge is con- 
sidered the characteristic one of California ; and probably two 
thirds of its immense aboriginal population lived in dwellings 
of this description. The doorway is sometimes directly on 
top, sometimes on the ground at one side."'" Wheeler states 
that ^*^^ the houses of the Southern Calif ornians were probably 
of a simple construction, though varying somewhat in different 
localities. Usually they are described as conical in shape, and 
built over a hole dug to the depth of a few feet. Around this 
hole, poles were set, forming the frame, which was covered with 
rushes and earth. The door was sometimes on a level with the 
ground, while in other houses it was placed near the top, when 
it also served for an exit to the smoke. 

By the term " door," as used above, it is evident that " door- 
way " is meant, for they had no doors to their houses, although 
among some of the American tribes a curtain was hung before 
the entrance to prevent any inquisitive examination.'*^^ 

A doorway, which might be well compared to a " burrow," 
is that used by the Esquimaux, as well as by the Mandans and 
some other tribes ; the entrance to their dwellings consisting of 
a passageway some five feet wide, ten or twelve feet long, and 
about six feet high, constructed with split timbers, roofed with 
poles, and covered with earth."*' 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

TU kie's statements regarding fu-sang. 

The envoy from the kingdom of Fu-sang-The commission of Yu Kie-Hwui ShSn 
the envoy mentioned-Yu Kie's storj-The presents given to the emperor 
-The custom of offering tribute-The yellow silk-The term applied to 
vegetable fibers-Sisal hemp-Its strength-Probability that the agave fiber 
wo'uld be brought home by a traveler-The semi-transparent mirror-Mexi- 
can obsidian mirrors-Nature of obsidian-The" Palace of the Sun "-The 
Chinese zodiac-Their horary cycle-Concave and convex mirrors-Obsidian 
mirrors peculiar to Mexico-The silk taken from the agave-Lack of cocoons 
-The seeds of the centuvy-plant carried to Corea-The use of agave leaves 
as fuel-The ashes used for obtaining lye-The agave fiber steeped in an 
alkaline solution-The feast of HuitzilopochtU-Intercourse between Corea 
and China-The Corean records-Possibility that further information may 
be found in thcm-The palace of the king-The glitter of obsidian m the 
morning light— The Country of Women again— Serpent husbands— The ex- 
pedition of Nuuo de Guzman— The Smoking Mountain— Yolcanoes-Hairy 
worms— The "nopal de la tierra "—The fire-trees— The fire-rats- The Black 
Valley— The Snowy Range— Huitzilopochtli— The intoxicating liquor— The 
" Sea of Varnish "— Petroleum— Mineral springs— Hot springs— The extent 
of the land— Animals— Winged men— Birds that bear human beings. 

In the appendix to the account of Fu-sang, given by the 
Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, contained in the thirteenth 
chapter of this work, and in the slightly different version which 
was translated by Professor Williams, and which is copied in the 
fourteenth chapter, it is stated that, in the commencement of the 
years called tien-kien— which were the first years of the reign 
of the emperor Wu-ti, of the Liang dynasty, beginning in 502 
A. D._an envoy from the kingdom of Fu-sang presented him- 
self, and offered to the emperor divers objects from his country. 
Wu-Ti charged an official of his court, named Yu Kie, to inter- 
roo-ate him regarding the customs and the productions of Fu- 
sang, the history of the kingdom, its cities, its rivers, its mount- 
ains etc., as was the custom in similar cases whenever a for- 



520 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

eign embassador visited the court. D'Hervey gives conclusive 
reasons for believing that this envoy was none other than the 
monk Hwui Shan. It seems that Yu Kie wrote down the 
account found in the Chinese official records, and that he in- 
cluded in it only such statements as he thought worthy of a 
place in these records, and as he felt convinced that he thor- 
oughly understood ; all that seemed doubtful or unworthy of 
belief being omitted. 

It happened, however, that he one day entertained the attend- 
ants at court with an account of the wonders of Fu-sang, and a 
portion of his narration has been preserved. This was told in a 
joking way, and many of the facts were evidently exaggerated or 
perverted ; while other details seem to be founded upon a mis- 
understanding of the imperfect Chinese of a man who had been 
but two or three years in the country. Yu Kie appears to have 
thought, however, that the account related to him by Hwui Shun 
was as wonderful as anything that he could himself invent, 
and he therefore seems to have adhered quite faithfully to the 
story that he had heard. While his joking account can not be 
fully relied upon as to any particular point, many statements 
are contained in it which throw light upon facts which are but 
imperfectly described in the official record. 

Before examining this merry tale, however, it will be well to 
notice the statements made in regard to the presents which were 
brought to the emperor by Hwui Shan. The account of these gifts 
seems as reliable as any portion of the record that was copied by 
Ma Twan-lin, and it is therefore necessary to inquire whether the 
articles were such as were produced or made in Mexico, and as 
would be likely to l)e taken by a foreigner, when about to leave 
the country, as being representatives of the most valuable or 
most wonderful articles to be found in it. 

I. — The presents which he offered consisted principally 

OF THREE HUNDRED POUNDS OF TELLOAV SILK, SPUN BY THE SILK- 
WORM OF THE FU-SANG TREE, AND OF AN EXTRAORDINARY 
STRENGTH. ThE EMPEROR HAD AN INCENSE-BURNER OF MASSIVE 
GOLD, OF A WEIGHT OF SOME FIFTY POUNDS. ThIS COULD BE 
LIFTED AND HELD SUSPENDED BY SIX OF THESE THREADS, WITHOUT 
BREAKING THEM. 

Maundevile, in speaking of the emperor of China, says : "'' 
" The custom is suche, that no Straungere schalle come before 



YU KEE'S STATEMENTS REGARDING FU-SANG. 521 

him, but gif he geve hy m sum manere thing, af tre the olde Lawe, 
that seythe, Nemo accedat in cotispectu meo vacuus^ 

It therefore appears that Hwui Shiin, in his offer of tribute, 
was but complying with one of the necessary conditions of an 
imperial audience. 

The " yellow silk " presented by him was unquestionably the 
fiber of the agave. The usual Chinese character for silk is |^, 
sz'. This is defined by Professor Williams : ^^^^ " Silk as it comes 
from the cocoons ; silk in general ; the fibers of nettle-hemp (Boeh- 
meria) and other jylants.'''' Copper- wire is also called "copper- 
silk." It therefore appears that the character J^,, being equally 
applicable to any lustrous vegetable fiber, does not necessarily 
mean silk, but might be used with propriety for the glossy fiber 
of the American agave. This is of a beautiful light golden 
yellow colour, as may be seen by any one who will take the 
trouble to examine a strand of the so-called " Sisal hemp." Its 
strength is such that a weight of at least eight pounds can be 
lifted by a single fiber ; and the statement as to the weight 
which was lifted by six of the fibers (probably twisted together) 
does not seem to be exaggerated. Here Yu Kie seems to have 
misunderstood Hwui Shan. He gathered from his account the 
fact that the so-called " silk " was in some way connected with 
the fu-sang tree (i. e., the agave), but failed to learn what the 
exact connection was. His reference to the silkworm of the 
fu-sang tree seems to have been based upon the belief that the 
fiber, although so coarse and strong as to differ greatly from 
common silk, was in reality a species of true silk, and that it 
must therefore be the product of a silk-worm. 

The weight that was presented to the emperor is not in ex- 
cess of the amount that could be carried by a single man in an 
open boat, coasting along the shore from Mexico to China by 
the route heretofore pointed out. 

As the fu-sang tree, or agave, was not only the plant from 
which the country took its name, but was also both the most 
wonderful and the most valuable plant contained in it, and as its 
chief value lay in its fiber (which was used for making cordage, 
cloth, and paper), it would be surprising if a stranger who visited 
the land, and who wished to take with him specimens of its 
strangest, most valuable, and most characteristic products, should 
have failed to include among them the fiber in question. 



522 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

II. — There was also among the presents offereb to 

THE emperor a SORT OF SEMI-TRANSPARENT PRECIOUS STONE, 
CUT IN THE FORM OF A MIRROR, AND OF THE CIRCUMFERENCE 
OF MORE THAN A FOOT. In OBSERVING THE SUN BY REFLEC- 
TION, BY MEANS OF THIS STONE, THE PALACE WHICH THE SUN 
CONTAINS APPEARED VERY DISTINCTLY. 

Nearly all the historians of Mexico mention the fact that the 
Aztecs made mirrors of obsidian,'" which were often ornamented 
with gold. Bancroft says that their mirrors of rock-crystal, ob- 
sidian, and other stones, brightly polished, and encased in rich 
frames, were said to reflect the human face as clearly as the best 
of European manufacture,''" and he refers particularly to Peter 
Martyr (dec. v, lib. x), who says of the obsidian of the country : 
*' Excellent glasses may bee made thereof by smoothing and pol- 
ishing them, so that we all confessed that none of ours did bet- 
ter showe the naturall and liuely face of a manne." ^^'^ These 
mirrors were found as far north as New Mexico ^'* or Arizona,*^' 
and as far south as Yucatan and Nicaragua,"^ and specimens of 
them are still preserved in the National Museum of the City of 
Mexico.*^* Masks, and even rings and cups, were sometimes 
worked from the same material,*'® and it was also the stone of 
which they made their knives, razors, swords, daggers, and other 
cutting instruments.'"* Hernandez says of this stone : "'* 

"Three varieties are distinguished, the blue, white, and 
black, all of which are translucent. When cut into shape, they 
are bright and sparkling, and of wonderful transparency. They 
are dug out of veins, of which many are found in Mexico, and 
are cut into moderately small pieces, of such size and shape as 
may be desired, the angles being rubbed down with other small 
stones of a gritty nature." 

Respecting obsidian relics, Mr. Tyler says : ^*' "Any one who 
does not know obsidian may imagine great masses of bottle- 
glass, such as our orthodox ugly wine-bottles are made of, very 
hard, very brittle, and, if one breaks it with any ordinary im- 
plement, going, as glass does, in every direction but the right 
one. Out of this rather unpromising stuff the Mexicans made 
knives, razors, arrow and spear heads, and other things, some of 
great beauty. I say nothing of the polished obsidian mirrors 
and ornaments, nor even of the curious masks of the human face 
that are to be seen in collections, for these were only labouriously 



YU KIE'S STATEMENTS REGARDING FU-SANG. 523 

cut and polished with jewelers' sand, to us a commonplace pro- 
cess." 

But if the semi-transparent mirror which Hwui Shan present- 
ed to the emperor was brought from Mexico, what is " the palace 
which the sun contains," which was said to be reflected in it ? 
Here there is a possibility of error, owing to the fact that we 
have no copy of the statement in Chinese. It seems probable, 
however, that the character translated " palace " is ^, kung, 
which means " a mansion or palace." Now, the Chinese divide 
the zodiac into twenty-eight kuxg,^'" constellations, lunar man- 
sions, houses, or palaces."'^* The zodiac is further divided into 
twelve signs, or palaces, ranging from 25° to 38° in length, 
named after the twelve branches, or the animals representing 
them ; '^"^ and these last are probably the divisions referred to by 
Schlegel, when he says : ^^^'' " The twelve divisions of the Chi- 
nese horary circle are named in Chinese the twelve ktjng, or 
palaces." As the phrase tueh kung, "the moon's palace," 
means " the bright moon," *"* it is possible that " the sun's pal- 
ace " may mean " the bright sun," or " the brightness of the 
sun." I think, however, that there is here a reference to the 
fact that a spherically concave or convex mirror will, when laid 
horizontally, with its reflecting surface facing the zenith, exhibit 
an image of the sun, in some particular part of the mirror ; the 
exact place being governed by the position of the sun in the 
heavens. Hence, the distance of the sun above the horizon 
could be seen represented in the mirror, and from this it would 
be easy to determine the kung, or celestial mansion, or palace, 
in which the sun then was. 

"We have unquestionable proof that the Aztecs had not only 
plain mirrors, but also made them both concave 
and convex. Herrera says that they had mirrors 
"as large as one's fist, round as a ball, framed 
in gold." '" Castaiieda's plates include a semi- 
spherical mirror of copper-covered lava, three 
and a half inches in diameter.**" Clavigero gives 
the accompanying engraving,'***" and says that '"** 
it is a picture of a Mexican mirror, which repre- tec mirror. 

sents the city of Tehuillojoccan, which name 
means "the Place of the Mirrors." Brasseur de Bourbourg 
says : "^ " They sold mirrors having two faces, polished on both 




524 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

sides, and made some of them concave, of white or black stone." 
He also says that the priests of Central America, by the use of a 
mirror, caused the holy fire to descend upon the victim, which 
was thus immediately consumed."' This could only have been 
done by a concave mirror. Finally, Sahagun states that the 
Mexicans made mirrors which reflected the figure differently from 
what it really was, for they enlarged the different parts of the 
visage, and made them appear deformed. They were given dif- 
ferent forms, round, triangular, etc.^^" These must have been 
either concave or convex. 

It should be noticed that, in the cases in which the size of the 
mirrors is mentioned, this corresponds closely with the dimen- 
sions of the one presented to the emperor by Hwui Shan ; and 
it seems that a concave or convex mirror of obsidian, such as 
were made by the Aztecs, would fully answer the description 
given in the Chinese account. So far as I know, these peculiar 
mirrors were never made in any other country in the world, and 
the account of this one article seems sufficient to prove that its 
giver must have brought or obtained it from Mexico. Accus- 
tomed as the Spanish conquerors were to excellent mirrors, they 
thought that these of Aztec manufacture were worthy of special 
mention, and we find them named among the list of precious 
articles which Montezuma and other chieftains presented to their 
enslavers.^'* The only reflectors manufactured by the Chinese 
in the days of Ilwui Shan were metallic ; *^"'' and, as they were 
then unacquainted with glass, the semi-transparent mirror pre- 
sented by the Buddhist priest must have struck them as both 
new and wonderful. 

To me, the presents brought by Hwui Shan seem to be ex- 
actly such articles as a traveler would be likely to bring from 
Mexico, as representative of its most characteristic and most val- 
uable productions, and I know of no other land from which they 
could have been obtained. 

Recurring now to Yu Kie's statements, we find the following : 

in. — SiLK-WOKMS ARE FOUND IK Fu-SANG WHICH ABE SEVEN" 

feet long and as much as seven inches in circumference. 
Their colour is golden. It takes a year to raise them. 
On the eighth day of the fifth month they spin yellow 

SILK, which is extended UPON THE BRANCHES OF THE FU-SANG 
TREE, FOR THEY MAKE NO COCOONS. ThIS SILK IS NATURALLY 



YU KIE'S STATEMENTS REGAEDING FU SANG. 525 

VERY WEAK, BUT IT IS COOKED (or BOILED ; pethaps the meaning 
is " steeped ") in lye prepared from the ashes of the wood 

OF THE FU-SANG, AND THUS ACQUIRES SUCH STRENGTH THAT FOUR 
THREADS TWISTED TOGETHER ARE SUFFICIENT TO RAISE A WEIGHT 

OF THIRTY Chinese pounds. The eggs of these silk - worms 

ARE AS LARGE AS SWALLOWs' EGGS. SoME WERE TAKEN TO Co- 
REA ; BUT THE VOYAGE INJURED THEM SO THAT NOTHING ISSUED 
FROM THEM BUT SILK-WORMS AS SMALL AS THOSE OF ChINA. 

Here, for the second time, we find an error arising from an 
imperfect understanding of Hwui Shan's faulty Chinese, and 
from the belief that the fiber shown was true silk, and, therefore, 
the product of a silk-wonn. The fiber of the agave is produced 
from something which is about seven feet long and about seven 
inches in circumference (or rather breadth) ; this much Hwui 
Shan succeeded in causing Yu Kie to understand ; but that some- 
thing is not a silk-worm, but the leaf of the plant. The golden 
or yellow colour is the tint of the fiber. 

It may easily be imagined that the explorer endeavoured to 
explain that the fiber was in the leaf of the fu-sang tree and ex- 
tended through it ; and all that Yu Kie could make of his few 
Chinese words, helped out by signs, and possibly by rude draw- 
ings, was that the " yellow silk " was " extended upon the branches 
of the fu-sang tree," while Hwui Shan's attempt to set him right, 
by explaining that there were no cocoons, was unsuccessful. 

The so-called " eggs " are undoubtedly the seeds of the agave. 
Some of these he brought with him as far as Corea, and there 
they were either found to have been killed by the cold of the 
Arctic regions, through which he had passed, or else, having 
been planted, he was obliged to leave the young plants there 
while they were small. 

As to the reference to the lye prepared from the ashes of the 
wood of the fu-sang : we find, first, that the leaves of the agave, or 
maguey, formed a common fueP^ in Mexico."' Becher says that 
tortillas " are cooked in an earthen dish over a fire, generally of 
dried maguey leaves'''' ; and Sahagun names, among the articles 
sold by the dealer in fire-wood, "the leaves of the maguey,""'* 
and adds that '"" " they make an excellent fire, and the ashes are 
very good for lye!''' 

The general statement of the Mexican historians is, that the 
maguey fibers were prepared for use by the same process as 



526 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

that adopted for the preparation of flax in other countries.*^' The 
Aztecs macerated the leaves, steeping them in water,"* then 
cleaned the fiber, dried it in the sun, and beat it until fit to 
g 'jj 1083 There is no proof that they were acquainted with the 
use of an alkaline bath for treating the fiber, although Sahagun's 
statement leads to the reasonable inference that the Mexicans ex- 
tracted lye from the ashes of the agave leaves ; and alkalies are 
used in the process now most frequently employed. Squier says 
that, at Key West,"^" the people either preserve the primitive 
process which is practiced in Yucatan, of beating or scraping the 
leaves, or, after crushing them between a pair of rollers, they 
steep them in an alkaline solution for a few days, and then hackle 
them. He adds that^^*' the use of alkalies in treating fibers, either 
with or without pressure, in the process of boiling, will take out 
much of the gummy and colouring matters which they contain, 
but the heat will fix or set that which is left of a buff colour, of 
greater or less depth, according to the strength of the alkaline 
bath used. 

The statement that it takes a year to raise the worms, or the 
silk, and that the silk is spun upon the eighth day of the fifth 
month, each year, seems to vaguely indicate that the agave leaves 
were cut or the fiber gathered on a fixed day of the year, and, if 
so, the customs of the Mexican people were such that this annual 
harvest would probably be connected with a feast or festival in 
honour of the god Huitzilopochtli, "the Ever-youthful One of 
the Thorny Plant," whom we have already identified as a deifi- 
cation of the plant in question. 

Bancroft says that the first half of the month called Toxcitl 
(which was probably the fifth month) was,'^^ among the Mexi- 
cans, taken up with a continuous scene of festivals in honour of 
Tezcatlipoca ; the latter half of the month was devoted to the 
worship of his brother god Huitzilopochtli.'" From Sahagun's 
statement it would appear, however, that the feasts and banquets 
in honour of Tezcatlipoca lasted hntfive days;^"^ then, according 
to Lenoir,'"^ tivo days before the feast of Huitzilopochtli (or 
Yitzlipidtzi, as he spells the name) a statue representing him 
was kneaded from corn-meal and honey. It therefore appears 
not impossible that the feast of Huitzilopochtli fell on the 
eighth day of the fifth month. It is probable that too little is 
now known of the life of the aboriginal Mexicans to enable us 



YU KIE'S STATEMENTS EEGAEDING FU-SANG. 527 

to determine whether this was the exact date of his feast, or 
whether it was connected in any. manner with the gathering of 
the fiber of the century-plant. 

The mention of the circumstance that the " eggs," or seeds, 
were taken to Corea, shows that Hwui Shan passed through that 
country on his way to China. Attention has already been called 
to the fact that some knowledge of his story seems to have been 
preserved in that country. Corea paid tribute to China through- 
out the fifth and sixth centuries, and there was then constant 
communication between the two countries,'"^ so that the Bud- 
dhist i^riest must have found this portion of his journey very easy. 
It is possible that the visit to the Chinese emperor Liang Wu-ti '-^'' 
(the emperor to whom Hwui Shiin presented the "silk " and the 
semi-transparent mirror), of Corean embassadors, who came to 
ask for the Buddhist classics, was brought about by the interest 
in Buddhist doctrines occasioned by the visit of Hwui Shan. 

The Coreans first adopted the ideographic writing of the 
Chinese ; but as their language is susceptible of being written by 
means of an alphabet, they either invented or adopted one, in the 
year 374 a. d. This alphabet is still in general use in Corea, 
although Chinese characters are also used in almost all scientific 
works.'*" 

As the Coreans were able to write at the time that Hwui 
Shan visited them, it seems not unreasonable to hope that some 
account of his story may still be found among their records, 
which will supplement and complete the account which we have 
borrowed from the Chinese. 

Oppert says, however:"" "The few native writings, pre- 
tending to supply historical accounts, contain in truth nothing 
whatever that throws light upon any subject of importance. They 
limit themselves solely to the enumeration of the different kings 
and queens, without furnishing dates of any important events 
that may have occurred ; the most likely conjecture for which, 
perhaps, is that they really have had no prominent facts to re- 
cord. It is true tha,t a journal was kept in every magistrate's 
office, giving an accurate account of even insignificant occurrences 
happening in the district ; this kind of registration appears, how- 
ever, to have been carried on more for the purpose of facilitating 
the superintendence of the central government over the different 
parts of the country, than with a view to record monuments of 



528 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

historical interest. Nearly four hundred volumes were found, 
on the occasion of Admiral Roze's visit to Kangwha, in the 
buildings of the Prefecture, containing journals of such district 
records, but which the French believed at the time to contain 
matters of great historical moment. These books were sent to 
Paris, and placed in the then Bibliotheque Imp^riale, where they 
still are. It is almost unnecessary to add, after what has been 
stated above, that they are not of the slightest value for the pur- 
pose of researches on the general history of the country." 

Still, notwithstanding Oppert's statement, something of value 
may yet be found in these records. 

As there seems no other possible explanation of the fact, 
mentioned by M. the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys (see 
Chapter XII of this work), that the highest dignitaries of Corea 
bear the same title of " Great Tui-lu " that was borne by the 
first rank of the nobility of the country of Fu-sang, I venture 
to suggest the theory that, after the story of the land of Fu- 
sang had become well known in Corea, the officer of some secret 
society, or some political party, assumed this foreign title — just 
as in America the chief officer of " Tammany Hall " assumed the 
aboriginal title of " sachem " — and at some later date this soci- 
ety or party succeeded in forcing a recognition by the govern- 
ment, and shared in the power of the throne. The fact that 
the mandarins of this title in Corea are elected and deposed 
by the members of this rank, by their own authority, without 
consultation either with the king or his ministers, indicates an 
independence which can hardly have originated otherwise than 
in the manner above suggested. 

IV. — The palace of the king is surrounded by walls of 
crystal, which appear clearly before daylight ; but these 
walls become quite invisible during an eclipse of the 
moon. 

Here there seems a reference to walls built of some semi-trans- 
parent or translucent stone, such as obsidian, alabaster, or gypsum. 
The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg states that "* marble, jasper, 
porphyry, alabaster, and obsidian were everywhere used as mate- 
rials either for ornaments of the palaces and temples, or for statues 
and other sculptured objects, and he mentions that '^^ the edifice 
designed for the preservation and propagation of the birds, 
whose feathers were used for the manufacture of mosaic feather- 



YU KIE'S STATEMENTS REGARDING FU-SANG. 529 

work, was surrounded by porticos of alabaster, which opened upon 
vast gardens. Tecali, a transparent stone resembling alabaster, 
was sometimes used in the temples for window-glass,-"" and plates 
of gypsum are still sometimes used in Mexico or New Mexico for 
the same purpose."*' 

Diaz states that Montezuma's palace was of stone and lime, 
and the walls were covered with marble, jasper, and porphyry, in 
the smoothly polished surface of which one could see his reflected 
image ; ''"' and among the notable edifices of Mexico is mentioned 
the^TezcacaUi, or "House of Mirrors," so called from the (ob- 
sidian) mirrors which covered its walls. "=* If the ancient tradi- 
tions may be believed, the Toltec monarchs built as magnifi- 
cent palaces as their Aztec successors.'^' The sacred palace of 
that mysterious Toltec priest-king Quetzalcoatl had four prin- 
cipal halls, which were ornamented respectively with gold ; with 
emeralds, turquoises, and precious stones ; with silver and sea- 
shells, and with red jasper. 

To one unacquainted with true glass, the glitter and transpar- 
ency of obsidian, iztli, or volcanic glass would seem very remark- 
able. Both Prescott and Bancroft *'' mention the glistening of 
obsidian in the dawning light, the former in these words : '°" 
" The first gray of the morning was coming over the waters, . . . 
while the bosom of the lake, as far as the eye could reach, was 
darkened by canoes, crowded with warriors, whose spears and 
bludgeons, armed with blades of * volcanic glass,' gleamed in the 
morning light." 

Some such reference as this seems to have been made by 
Hwui Shan to the gleam of the obsidian or alabaster in the walls 
of the king's palace, when illuminated by the first light of the 
morning, and Yu Kie exaggerated it into the shape given in the 

text. 

v.— The lokd Yu Kie said besides : At the korthwest, 

ABOUT TEN thousand LI, THERE EXISTS A KiNGDOM OF WOMEX 
who take SERPENTS FOR HUSBANDS. MOREOVER, THESE REP- 
TILES ARE INOFFENSIVE. ThEY LIVE IN HOLES, WHILE THEIR 
WIVES, OR CONCUBINES, LIVE IN HOUSES AND PALACES, AND EX- 
ERCISE ALL THE CARES OF STATE. In THIS KINGDOM THERE ARE 
NO BOOKS, AND THEY KNOW NOTHING OF THE ART OF WRITING. 

They believe firmly in the efficacy of certain forms of 

PRAYERS, OR OF MALEDICTIONS. ThE WOMEN WHO ACT UPRIGHTLY 
84 



530 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

PKOLONG THEIE LIVES, AND THOSE WHO SWERVE FROM THE RIGHT 
ARE IMMEDIATELY CUT OFF. ThE WORSHIP OF SPIRITS IMPOSES 
LAWS THAT NONE DARE TO VIOLATE. 

Here there is a reference to the *' Country of Women." In 
the account of the voyage to Cibola, contained in the collection 
of M. Ternaux-Compans, it is stated that the Tahuas, living 
in the province of Culiacan (the province in which the Country 
of Women was often said to be situated), raised large serpents, 
for which they had great veneration."^^® A full description of 
this curious custom is given in the " First Anonymous Account of 
the Expedition of Nuuo de Guzman," published in the collec- 
tion of Icazbalceta.'"'' " In the religious rites of this land, the 
devil is worshiped as their god ; and in many houses of this 
country they keep numerous great serpents, which live in a cor- 
ner in the darkest part of the house ; the serpents are twined 
together in a great ball or heap, and some of these masses of 
serpents are very large. When they are thus twined together 
in a round ball, from which the head of one projects at the top, 
and another from the bottom, and others from the middle, the 
spectacle is one that is frightful to behold ; for they are as large 
around as the arm, and they open their mouths ; but they do no 
harm, for the Indians take them in their hands and feed them. 
These Indians say that the serpents have the form of the demon 
whom they adore, and they therefore pay them great honour." 

A story of a custom of this kind, existing in a land named 
" the Country of Women," might very readily give rise to the 
curious melange narrated by Yu Kie, if it was related to him by 
a man who had but a slight knowledge of Chinese, and who was 
therefore unable to make himself fully understood. 

VI. — To the south of Ho-tcheoit (the " Island of Fire " — 
probably >^, hwo, "fire," and cheu, >]\\, "an island or district"), 

SITUATED TO THE SOUTH OF THIS COUNTRY, IS THE MOUNTAIN YeN- 

KOUEN (" Burning Mountain " — probably jt@, yen, " smoke," and 
^, KWUN, "a peak, a high mountain"), the inhabitants of 

WHICH EAT LOCUSTS, CRABS, AND HAIRY SERPENTS, TO PRESERVE 
THEMSELVES FROM THE HEAT. In THIS LAND OF Ho-TCHEOU, THE 

Ho-Mou (trees of fi.re — probably >At, hwo, " fire," and ';^, muh, 
" wood, a tree ") grow ; their bark furnishes a solid tissue. 
Upon the summit of the mountain Yen-kouen there live 
fire-rats (ho-chou, probably hwo, i^, " fire," and ^, shu, " a 



YU KIE'S STATEMENTS REGARDING FU-SANG. 531 
rat, mouse, weasel, squirrel, or similar animal "), the hair of 

WHICH SERVES ALSO FOR THE FABRICATION OF AN INCOMBUSTIBLE 
STUFF WHICH IS CLEANED IN FIRE INSTEAD OF IN WATER. 

The Marquis d'Hervey's transcription of the words which he 
renders "Burning Mountain" shows that the translation should 
rather be " Smoking Mountain." This is exactly the meaning of 
the Aztec name, " Popocatepetl," ^^^ which is applied to the high- 
est mountain and most active volcano of Mexico (from popoca, 
" smoking," and tepetl, "a mountain"). South of Mexico several 
mountains are to be found, the native names of which mean 
either " Fire Mountain," " Burning Moimtain," or " Smoking 
Mountain." No equal extent of the American Continent, per- 
haps of the globe, possesses so many volcanoes, active and ex- 
tinct, or exhibits so many traces of volcanic action as Central 
America ; that is to say, the region embraced between the Isth- 
mus of Tehuantepec and that of Panama, or Darien. In the 
words of Mr. Stephens, the entire Pacific coast of this remark- 
able country " bristles with volcanic cones." ^^^* 

Oviedo makes a long enumeration of the volcanoes known at 
the time, and continues : " But it seems to me that none of these 
volcanoes are to be compared with that of Masaya, which, as I 
have said, I have seen and examined myself. Of this the reader 
shall be the judge, after he has read the description of that 
mountain whose name signifies " the Burning Mountain," in the 
language of the Chorotegans, in whose territory it is situated. 
In the language of Nicaragua it is called Popocatepec, which 
means ' Boiling Stream,' " 

Mr. Squier explains that this translation is a mistake of the 
chronicler ; " Popocatepec " meaning * " Smoking Mountain." '^^* 

As to the "hairy serpents," Purchas*"'* states that, in prepar- 
ing an unction for purposes of sorcery, " they did likewise grinde 
with these ashes blacke and hairie wormes, whose haire onelie is 
venomous : all which they mingled together with blacke, or the 
fume of rosine, putting it in small pots, which they set before 
their God, saying it was his meate, and therefore called it a Di- 
uine meate." The statement that these hairy serpents were eaten 
"to preserve them from the heat" seems, however, to indicate, 
that Hwui Shan made a rude drawing of the " nopal de la tierra," 

* Or rather " At the Smoking Mountain," or " The Region of the Smoking 
Mountain."— E. P. V. 



532 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

a species of cactus very common in Mexico, whose round, prickly- 
stems, straggling about upon the ground, would look in a draw- 
ing much like " hairy serpents." This species of nopal is often 
eaten in the hot and arid districts of Mexico, and its juicy stems 
serve to quench the thirst in many regions where water can not 
be otherwise obtained. 

Hernandez says that a species of rhododendron is called 
quauhtlepatU, or " the fire-tree remedy," "*' and he also mentions 
the tlepatli, or " fire-remedy," '^"** which may be the same plant. 
Ocotl, the name of the pitch-pine tree, was also applied to a 
torch, lamp, or candle ; "' and hence ocotoclitli^^'" the name of 
the marten,^'^^^ meaning literally the " pine-rabbit," might be 
understood to mean the "torch-rabbit." The "hair" of the 
" fire-rat " is evidently asbestos, once known as " salamander's- 
wool," and as in Europe and Asia this substance, which " when 
woven into cloth and thrown into the fire remains incombusti- 
ble,"'"^ gave rise to the myth of the salamander, it may in 
Mexico have led to similar stories of a species of "fire-rat." 
The Ychcatetl, or " cotton-stone," mentioned by Hernandez '"' as 
among the productions of Mexico, seems to have been a variety 
of asbestos. 

VII. — To THE NORTH OF THIS KiNGDOM OF WoMEN IS THE 

Black Valley (He-ko, probably ||, hoh, " black," and kuh, ;gl, 
" a ravine, gully, gorge, canon "), and north of the Black Val- 
ley ARE MOUNTAINS SO HIGH THAT THEY REACH TO THE HEAV- 
ENS. Snow covers them all the year. The sun does not 

SHOW ITSELF THERE AT ALL. It IS THERE, IT IS SAID, THAT THE 

DRAGON TcHO-LONG (the " Luminous Dragon" — probably j^, 
CHUH, "an illumination, a torch, to illumine," and ||, lung, "a 
dragon") resides. 

North of Mexico is found the Caiion of the Colorado River, 
the most wonderful chasm in the world, with walls so steep, 
high, and close together, that, as I once heard General Crook ex- 
press it, "it is necessary to lie down upon one's back in order 
to see the sky." Into much of this deep gorge no ray of sun- 
shine ever falls, and it well deserves the name of the "Dark 
Caiion." North of this is found the Sierra Nevada, " the Snowy 
Range." The reference to the Luminous Dragon is probably bor- 
rowed from some superstition of China, but it is not impossible 
that the worship of Huitzilopochtli, who,, according to Saha- 



YU KIE'S STATEMENTS REGARDING FU-SANG. 533 

gun, "" " bore upon his escutcheon a frightful head of a dragon 
vomiting flames," was, in later days, mixed with that of some 
god who, in the fifth century, was adored only in the region 
north of Mexico. 

VIII. — At the west is a fountain that inebkiates, and 

HAS THE TASTE OF WINE. In THESE BEGIONS THERE IS ALSO 

FOUND A Sea of Varnish, of which the waves dye black the 

FEATHERS AND FURS THAT ARE DIPPED IN THEM ; AND ANOTHER 
SEA OF THE COLOUR OP MILK. 

That which inebriates, and has the taste of wine, is probably 
the liquor made from the juice of the agave, which Yu Kie erro- 
neously understood to be the product of a fountain. The " Sea 
of Varnish " is thus described by Sahagun : '^'" 

" ^Yhat is the chapopotli ? It is a bitumen which comes 
from the sea, and which resembles Spanish pitch when it is soft. 
The waves of the sea throw it upon the shore, particularly on 
certain days at the times of the waxing of the moon. It lies 
spread out upon the waves like a great piece of cloth, and those 
who reside near the shore gather it upon the coast. The chapo- 
potli is fragrant, and much esteemed by the women. When 
thrown upon the fire its odour extends to a great distance." 

Hernandez gives the following account of ^'■chapopotli, or 
the bitumen of the sea-shore of New Spain " : '^" " Chapopotli is 
a mineral which is of a dark yellowish colour, and from old 
times has been called Jewish bitumen. When of a purple colour, 
and exhaling a powerful odour like that of trefoil, asphalt, or 
rue, it is considered very valuable. It flows forth by the North- 
em Ocean, and the flowing liquid immediately runs along the 
shores of this New Spain in sheets which are said to be sometimes 
two miles in length, and when chance favours, two or three 
spans in thickness. Such is its abundance in these regions that 
it is of but little value. The Mexican women chew it, and not 
without pleasure, as its cleanses the mouth, and restores the teeth 
to their original brightness." Brasseur de Bourbourg describes 
it as " a black matter, analogous to pitch, which is found in the 
neighbouring seas, which is thrown up by the waves upon the 
coast " ; '"^ and Acosta ' mentions a spring or fountain of bitu- 
men as occurring upon the Pacific coast. This native petroleum, 
or bitumen, was one of the substances used by the Mexicans as 
a means of producing a black colour."®* 



534 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

I know of no sea " of the colour of milk " in Mexico, but the 
western portion of the American Continent contains so many- 
springs and lakes of strange qualities, that the probability is 
that one thoroughly acquainted with the country could point out 
more than one lake or spring which would answer the descrip- 
tion. Sahagun says : " In regard to the springs, there are so 
many in that land, and they are of such diverse qualities, that 
they would merit a separate treatise, especially if we were to 
enumerate those of the kingdom of Michoacan. There are an 
infinite number of springs of mineral water, nitrous, sulphurous, 
vitriolic, and aluminous." '^" Squier ^""^ says that, at the edge of 
Lake Managua, in Nicaragua, there were hundreds of hot springs. 
" In fact, for a considerable extent, the ground was covered with 
white incrustations, resembling a field of snow ; and, as we walked 
over it, the sound of the water beneath was like that of a vio- 
lently boiling cauldron." 

IX. — The territory surrounded by these natural mar- 
vels IS OF GREAT EXTENT AND EXTREMELY FERTILE. 

This well describes Mexico and the neighbouring regions of 
America, but would be w^holly inapplicable to any other location 
which has been suggested for Fu-sang. 

X. — Dogs, ducks, and horses of a great height live 
IN IT . . . The rabbits of this country are white, and as 

LARGE AS HORSES, THEIR HAIR BEING A FOOT LONG. ThE 
SABLES ARE AS LARGE AS WOLVES ; THEIR HAIR IS BLACK AND 
OF EXTRAORDINARY THICKNESS. 

Dogs and ducks were common in Mexico, as well as in other 
parts of America. The question of the existence of " horses " in 
the country has been considered in Chapter XXVI. 

The rabbits of the western portion of America, commonly 
called "jackass rabbits," while not "as large as horses," are the 
largest of their race, and weigh at least four times as much as 
the common rabbits of other countries. The " sables " may pos- 
sibly have been beavers. 

XI. — Birds which produce human beings live in this 

COUNTRY. The males born of these birds do not LIVE. 

The daughters only are raised with care by their 
fathers, who carry them with their beak or upon their 
wings. as soon as they commence to walk, they become 

MISTRESSES OF THEMSELVES. ThEY ARE ALL OF REMARKABLE 



YU KIE'S STATEMENTS REGARDING FU-SANG. 535 

BEAUTY, A>T) YERY HOSPITABLE, BUT THEY DIB BEFORE REACH- 
ING THE AGE OF THIRTY YEARS. 

This appears like a remarkable perversion of the peculiarities 
of the inhabitants of the " Country of Women." The name leads 
to the myth that the males die and only the daughters are 
raised. As soon as they are able to walk, they commence to 
provide for themselves, and they die of old age " before reach- 
ing the age of thirty years." They are said to be born of "birds," 
because a monkey's " swiftness on the trees is said to be like the 
flight of a bird," ^^" and being thus described as like a bird, 
Yu Kie seems to have understood that Hwui Shan meant that 
they were really birds. Traditions of men with wings exist in 
many countries. Mackenzie mentions such a myth as current 
among one of the Indian tribes met in his travels in Northwest- 
ern America ; "" the Chinese give a similar account of the Mao- 
tsz' aborigines in Kweichau ; -"' and the religious books of the 
Buddhists contain numerous tales of the kind.'"'>"*«''*'^'"^*'"''» 

On the whole, although Yu Kie's account contains many ab- 
surdities, most of them seem mere perversions or exaggerations 
of the truth, or to be founded on a misunderstanding of Hwui 
Shan's statements ; and some of the points referred to appear to 
throw additional light upon the facts mentioned in the official 
record. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 

Mexican hieroglyphics — The tradition regarding Wixipecocha — His arrival — His 
appearance — His conduct — His teachings — Persecution — His departure — 
Survival of the doctrines he taught — The " Wiyatao " — Another version of the 
tradition — The written account preserved by the Mijes — The " Taysacaa " — 
Identity of the term Wixipecocha with the name and title " Hwui Shin, bhik- 
shu " — The Mexican language — Huazontlan — Quetzalcoatl — His history not a 
inyth — The epoch at which he lived — His arrival — His garments — His attend- 
ants — Their knowledge of arts -Another account — Customs introduced — 
Religious penances — The foundation of monasteries and nunneries — Belief 
that he was a Buddhist priest — Brahmanism and Buddhism — The worship of 
Siva — The religion of Nepal — The goddess Kali — The worship of Mictlanci- 
huatl — Quetzalcoatl's horror of bloodshed — The arts he taught — The calen- 
dar — His promise to return — His vow to drink no intoxicating liquor — His 
temptation and fall — His sorrow — Etymology of his name — Its true meaning 
not " the Plumed Serpent," but " the Revered Visitor " — Term applied to the 
priests of JN'epal — The Mexican " Cihuacoatl " — The arrival of Quetzalcoatl 
from the east — Possible explanations — The crosses on his mantle — Explana- 
tion of occurrence of crosses in Yucatan — Intercourse with the West Indian 
Islands — The god Hurakan — Oracles and prophecies — Veneration of the cross 
in ancient times — Its occurrence in India and Egypt — Its use in Asia as a 
symbol of peace — The patchwork cloaks of the Buddhist priests — Buddha's 
commands — The mark of a foot-print in the rocks — Occurrence of such foot- 
prints in America and Asia — Veneration shown them. 

We have now finished our examination of the records found 
in Asia of Hwui Shan's trip to Mexico, and shall next inquire 
whether any record or tradition of the visit can be found in 
America. 

The hieroglyphics of the Mexicans were, at the best, but an 
imperfect method of recording historical events ; but we might 
have hoped to find, among the books or paintings in their posses- 
sion at the time of the Spanish conquest, some reference to a 
visit having so important an influence upon their life and civili- 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 537 

zation as that of this Buddhist monk, if it were not for the 
unfortunate fact that the Spanish priests — thinking the hiero- 
glyphic records of the Indians to be closely connected with the 
superstitious worship of their idols — destroyed all their native 
documents so thoroughly that scarcely one escaped their hands. 

We are therefore thrown back on the still mox'e unreliable 
witness of tradition, and find that this furnishes us with a tale in 
striking conformity with the account which we have been con- 
sidering. This story is thus narrated by the Abbe Brasseur de 
Bourbourg : ^' 

"The construction of the great edifices at Yopaa, which has 
since been so celebrated under the name of Mictlan (the Place 
of the Dead), has been attributed to the disciples of Quetzal- 
coatl. This place, however, has been rendered famous by the 
appearance here, at about the same epoch, or in earlier times, of 
an extraordinary personage, having a white complexion, to whom 
tradition gives the name of "Wixipecocha. This name is still 
preserved for the statue of this person, which is erected upon a 
high rock at the village of Magdalena, about four leagues from 
Tehuantepf^c. It is not known to what race he belonged, or 
from what region he came, when he presented himself to the 
Zapotec people. A vague tradition states that he came from 
the South Sea, a cross in his hand, and debarked in the neigh- 
bourhood of Tehuantepec. His statue at Magdalena represents 
him as a man of a venerable appearance, having a white and 
bushy beard. His garments are composed of a long robe, and 
of a mantle in which he is enveloped, covering his head like a 
cowl, in the manner of a monk. His statue represents him as 
seated in an attitude of reflection, apparently occupied in listen- 
ing to the confession of a woman kneeling at his side. His 
speech, to accord with his appearance, was of a remarkable 
sweetness. He taught the people to detach themselves from the 
things of this world, and to devote themselves to the practice of 
penitence and mortification, and to abstain from sensual pleas- 
ures. Adding example to precept, he kept away from women, 
and did not permit them to approach him, except for the purpose 
of auricular confession, which was part of his doctrine. 

" This extraordinary conduct inspired the respect of the wicked, 
for they considered it an unheard-of thing that a man could dis- 
pense with man-iage ; but he was often persecuted by those 



538 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

whose views and superstitions he attacked. Pursued in one 
province, he passed into another. Thus he arrived at the Zapo- 
tec Valley, the greater part of which was then taken up by a 
lake called Lake Rualo. Having finally entered into the country 
of the Mijes, to work for their conversion, some of them sought 
to put him to death. Those who had been sent to capture him 
overtook him at the foot of Cempoaltepec, the highest peak 
in the country ; but at the moment when they thought to seize 
him he disappeared from their sight, and soon after, the tra- 
dition asserts, his form was seen upon the highest summit of the 
mountain. 

" Full of astonishment, they hastened to climb its sides ; but, 
when they reached the top, Wixipecocha appeared to them again 
for a few moments : but, like a phantom, he vanished for the 
second time, leaving no other trace of his presence than the im- 
print of his feet engraved upon the rock which he left. Thence- 
forth Wixipecocha was seen no more ; but tradition adds, never- 
theless, that he was seen again upon the enchanted island of 
Monapostiac, not far from Tehuantepec, where, perhaps, he em- 
barked for the purpose of going to make new proselytes. 

" His doctrine lost nothing of its influence by the departure of 
its first apostle. In spite of the silence of history concerning 
the date of his appearance and the disciples whom he left, it can 
not be doubted that the pontiff of Yopaa continued his work, 
and that the ' Wiyatao,' who for several centuries exercised the 
functions of high-priest and supreme pontiff of Zacotecapan, 
was merely the vicar and successor of the prophet of Mona- 
postiac. It seems impossible to decide whether the worship of 
Quetzalcoatl derived from him the innovation which the prophet 
of Tollantzinco introduced among the Toltecs, or whether it is 
from the latter that Yopaa received the institutions which are 
found in the two religions ; but it is certain that, in spite of some 
notable differences between their rites and customs, there are 
striking resemblances which militate strongly in favour of a com- 
mon origin." Quotations are made from " Papeles Curiosos de la 
Historia de las Indias, recogidos por Don Mariano Veytia " ; 
" Rasgos y Seuales de la Primera Predication en el Nuevo Mun- 
do, MS. de Don Isidro Gondra" ; Carriedo, "Estudios Historicos 
y Estadisticos del Estado Oaxaqueiio," Mexico, 1850, tome i, 
cap. i ; and Burgoa, " Geogr. Hist, de Guaxaca," etc., cap. Ixxii. 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 539 

This account of the tradition is repeated by Bancroft,"^ who 
in other places gives the following variation of the tale : "^^ 

" However doubtful the tradition regarding Votan may be, 
there is one among the Oajacans which to me has all the appear- 
ances of a mutilated version of the myth of Quetzalcoatl, de- 
formed still more by the orthodox Fathers. In very remote 
times, about the era of the apostles, accordmg to the padres, an 
old white man, with long hair and beard, appeared suddenly at 
Huatulco, coming from the southwest by sea, and preached to 
the natives in their own tongue, but of things beyond their un- 
derstanding. He lived a strict life, passing the greater part of 
the night in a kneeling position, and eating but little. He dis- 
appeared shortly after as mysteriously as he had come, but left 
as a memento of his visit a cross, which he planted with his own 
hands, and admonished the people to preserve it sacredly, for one 
day they would be taught its significance. Some authors describe 
a personage of the same appearance and character coming from 
the same quarter, and appearing in the country shortly after ; but 
it is doubtless the same old man, who, on leaving Huatulco, may 
have turned his steps to the interior. His voice is next heard in 
Mictlan, inveighing in gentle but firm accents against the pleas- 
ures of this world, and enjoining repentance and expiation. His 
life was in strict accordance with his doctrines, and never, except 
at confession, did he approach a woman. But the lot of Wixe- 
pecocha, as the Zapotecs call him, was that of most reformers. 
Persecuted by those whose vice and superstitions he attacked, he 
was driven from one province to another, and at last took refuge 
on Mount Cempoaltepec. Even here his pursuers followed him, 
climbing its craggy sides to lay hands upon the prophet. Just 
as they reached the summit, he vanished like a shadow, leaving 
only the print of his feet upon the rock. 

" The Mijes had this tradition written in characters on skin. 
(Burgoa, 'Geog. Descrip.,' tome i, pt. ii, fol. 299.) 

'' It is in Zapotecapan that the disciples of Quetzalcoatl ap- 
pear most prominently. There they are said to have founded 
Mitla or Yopaa, and to have diffused their arts and religious 
teachings throughout the whole country, as far as Tehuantepec. 
The mysterious apostle Wixipecocha, of whom a full account has 
already been given, is said to have appeared in these regions. 
He was generally respected, but was sometimes persecuted. 



540 AN mGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

especially in the Mije country, whither he went after passing 
through the Zapotec Valley. 

" Nothing definite is known of the early history of the Miz- 
tecs (or Mijes) and Zapotecs. All that has been preserved is 
some account of their spiritual rulers. Thus, we are told that 
the Kingdom of Tilantengo, which comprised Upper Mizteca, 
was spiritually governed by the high-priest of Achiutla, who 
bore the title of * Taysacaa,' and whose power equaled, if it 
did not surpass, that of the king ; while in Zapotecapan the 
' Wiyatao,' or sovereign pontiff, united in his person the supreme 
sacerdotal and secular power," *^ 

Bancroft also makes several other references to this preacher 
of strange doctrines,^' and to the statue '" set up in his honour,*" 
and Brasseur de Bourbourg also refers again to the statue of 
Wixipecocha,"^but nothing of importance is added to the fore- 
going statements. 

As to the name, it should be noticed that the syllables 
"Wixi" or " Wixe" express very nearly the same sounds that 
occur in the name Hwui Shan. Nearly all other authors than 
Professor Williams (and he himself elsewhere than in his dic- 
tionary) spell the last name of the Buddhist priest "Shin" instead 
of " Shan." The " x " in " Wixe " or " Wixi " is intended to ex- 
press the sound " sh," and we would, therefore, spell the name 
Wixi-pecocha, " Wi-shi-pecocha." The closing portion of the 
term I imagine to be derived from the Sanskrit word, " bhik- 
shu," which was used as the title of the wandering Buddhist 
monks. It was customary to place this title after the name, 
and Hwui Shan's full name and title would, therefore, have been 
" Hwui Shan, bhikshu." Of "bhikshu " the Mexicans can hardly 
have made anything else than "pecocha," or "picoxa," for they 
had neither b nor bh in their language, and p is the letter which 
they would naturally substitute therefor. It is against their rules 
to permit two consonants to stand together, without the insertion 
of an intermediate vowel {tl, tz, x, and ch being regarded as sin- 
gle sounds), and they would, therefore, insert o or some obscure 
vowel sound between k and sh / and they seem to have seldom, 
if ever, permitted a word to end with o or u. 

With the exception of the dropping of the terminal nasal of 
Hwui Shan, or Hwui Shin, the term Wi-shi-pecocha is as faithful 
a preservation of "Hwui Shin, bhikshu" as could be expected. 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 64X 

As to this terminal nasal, it should be remarked that, in the 
Aztec language, such a nasal played nearly the same part as the 
"anuswara" of the Sanskrit, and was often either assimilated to 
the following consonant or else dropped. Thus the word for 
" one," when standing by itself, is ce ; but " one stone " (" stone " 
being tetl) is centetl, and "one tally" ("tally "being poalli) is 
cempoalli, "twenty." A similar fluctuation of the terminal nasal 
sound is seen in the Maya language of Yucatan, some authorities 
writing Chilan JBalam for the same words which others spell 
Chilam Balan or Chilam Balam,^^'^ 

Upon the Pacific coast of Mexico, near the mouth of the 
Tehuantepec River, is a town called Huazontlan, or " the Place of 
Huazon," which may possibly preserve the name of our Buddhist 
explorer in a slightly different shape. 

The statements made in regard to Wixipecocha show that 
there was some confusion in the native traditions between this 
prophet and Quetzalcoatl, the so-called " Plumed Serpent " ; the 
civilizer who was afterward deified, to whom the legend attrib- 
utes all the doctrines, all the arts, and all the industries which 
characterize the Toltec period.'*^* 

The history of Topiltzin Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl is one of the 
most interesting episodes of the annals of Mexico. ^^^ His mys- 
terious appearance, his glory, and his misfortunes have popular- 
ized his name, which is indissolubly connected with that of the 
Toltecs in all the countries in which the Nahuatl language is 
used. His triple reign in Anahuac, at Cholula, and in Yucatan is 
not one of the least singular phenomena of the life of this extra- 
ordinary personage, whom all the traditions of North America 
have celebrated, and regarding whom so many authors have 
written since the discovery of the Western Continent. This his- 
tory is not only interesting, however, but also contains much that 
is difficult to explain. 

Too frequently confounded with the mythical creations which 
are found in the ancient theogonies, Quetzalcoatl, in the eyes of a 
great number, is merely an allegorical figure, symbolizing, like 
many others, certain attributes of the divinity ; but careful study 
of the Mexican histories and traditions gives positive proofs to the 
contrary. Living at an epoch contemporaneous with that of Charle- 
magne and Haroun-al-Rasehid, Quetzalcoatl, in America, united 
in his person all the splendours of the civilization of his century. 



542 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

He was made the instrument and the personification of all that 
was most august, as was the case with the two rulers of Europe 
and Asia above named. High-priest of the nation of which he 
was the supreme chief, if he did not change the dogmas of the 
Toltec religion, he at least modified them considerably, clothed 
them with the veil of mystery, added new feasts and ceremonies 
to the ritual, and surrounded the worship of their ancient relig- 
ion with pompous display. Far from being merely a personified 
symbol, he identified with himself the pre-existing symbols, and 
prepared the apotheosis of the heroes of his family by personify- 
ing the ancient myths in them. Finally, he surrounded himself 
with so much mystery, and enveloped himself in an exterior so 
solemn, that while some deemed him a true god, others, irritated 
by his pride, were repelled from him, and commenced the great 
Toltec schism which, at the close of a civil and religious war of 
which he was the object, and of which his intolerance was the 
cause, ended by the destruction of the empire. 

More than fifteen years after the death of Totepeuh Nonohu- 
alcatl, the news of the appearance of Quetzalcoatl was spread 
throughout the provinces of the Toltec dominion. He was a 
person of an honourable deportment, large, well made, of a pre- 
possessing countenance, white of colour, with blonde hair, and 
with a beard that was bushy and well trimmed. Like his com- 
panions, he wore long and flowing garments ; his robe being of a 
white stuff strewed with black flowers. Several authors say that 
his robe was decorated with red crosses,*'* and still others state 
that the crosses were black. We, however, accept the testimony 
of las Casas that the ornaments were black flowers. 

The sleeves of his robe were large, but were fastened above 
the elbow. 

His suite was numerous, all composed of men equally skillful 
in the works of art and in the combinations of science : architects, 
painters, sculptors, masons, goldsmiths, jewelers, mathematicians, 
astronomers, musicians, and men of all other trades and profes- 
sions, even those Avho by their art were able to add to the pleas- 
ures of the table. They were a true colony of artists, who appear 
to have purposely sought these countries. They were seen for 
the first time in the neighbourhood of Panuco, where they had 
debarked, but no one ever knew whence they had come.*^^ 

Bancroft condenses a passage from Torquemada as follows : 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 543 

'" " Certain people came from the north by way of Panuco. These 
were men of good carriage, well dressed in long robes of black 
linen, open in front and without capes, cut low at the neck, with 
short sleeves that did not come to the elbow ; the same in fact 
that the natives use to this day in their dances. From Panuco 
they passed on very peaceably, by degrees, to Tulla, where they 
were well received by the inhabitants. The country there, how- 
ever, was already too thickly populated to sustain the new-comers ; 
so these passed on to Cholula, where they had an excellent re- 
ception. They brought with them, as their chief and head, a 
personage called Quetzalcoatl, a fair and ruddy-complexioned 
man with a long beard. In Cholula, these people remained, and 
multiplied, and sent colonies to people Upper and Lower Mixteca, 
and the Zapotecan country ; and these it is said raised the grand 
edifices, whose remains are still to be seen at Mictlan. These 
followers of Quetzalcoatl were men of great knowledge and cun- 
ning artists in all kinds of fine work ; not so good at masonry 
and the use of the hammer as in casting metals, in the engraving 
and setting of precious stones, in all kinds of artistic sculpture, 
and in agriculture." 

Sahagun says that he was represented as wearing upon his 
head a miter spotted like a tiger's skin, and ornamented with a 
plume of the feathers called quetzallV^'^ A small image of 
Quetzalcoatl, contained in the Parisian Museum of Ethnography 
(see Fig. 22, Chapter XXXII), represents him as wearing a 
plaited conical bonnet, fastened in front by a large band, orna- 
mented with great buttons, and which, according to Hamy,"" 
" reminds one of the bonnets worn by the Lama priests." 

Quetzalcoatl seems to have been the leader of the party of 
five Buddhist priests referred to by Hwui Shan, from whom 
the latter, in some way, became separated. Von Humboldt says 
of him that he was without doubt the most mysterious being of 
all the Mexican mythology. He was a white and bearded man, 
like Bochica, the hero of the Muyscas of South America. He 
was the high-priest of Tollan, a legislator, and the chief of a re- 
ligious sect which, like the Sonyasis, and the Buddhists of Hindo- 
stan, imposed the most cruel penances upon themselves. He 
introduced the custom of piercing the lips and ears, and of dis- 
figuring the rest of the body, with the thorns of the leaves of the 
century -plant, or with the spines of the cactus, and of introduc- 



544 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ing reeds into the wounds, so as to cause a more abundant flow 
of blood. One fancies that he sees one of the Rishis, hermits 
of the Ganges, of whom the Puranas celebrate the pious aus- 
terity.'^*^ He adds that ^'^^'^ he permitted no other offerings to the 
divinity than the first-fruits of the harvest. 

Nearly all the accounts tell us that Quetzalcoatl was never 
married, and that he held himself aloof from all women in abso- 
lute chastity.*-* Following the example of their master, many of 
the priests of his cult refrained from sexual relations, and, as a 
mortification of the flesh, they practiced a painful rite by trans- 
fixing the tongue with the sharp thorns of the maguey-plant, an 
austerity which, according to their traditions, he was the first to 
institute. There were also in the cities where his special wor- 
ship was in vogue, houses of nuns, the inmates of which had 
vowed perpetual virginity, and it was said that Quetzalcoatl 
himself had founded these institutions. 

Von Tschudi is led, by the general resemblance of the dress 
and doctrines of this teacher to those of the devotees of the re- 
ligions of India, to state his belief that he, as well as Manco 
Capac of Peru, was a missionary of the worship either of Brahma 
or Buddha (" Peruv. Antiq.," pp. 17-20)."'" Von Humboldt is in 
error in his statement that the Buddhists impose cruel penances 
upon themselves ; these penances belong rather to the Brah- 
manic than to the Buddhist religion. It is a fact, however, that 
the truth of the Brahmanic mythology was not denied by the 
founder of Buddhism or his followers, "^^ and that Brahmanic 
ideas form a strong element in Buddhism."'" It is a religion, 
contemplative, mild, a little sad, and eclectic. Propagandistic by 
nature, it converts by reason and example, never by force. It 
appropriates, with the greatest facility, all that it finds good in 
the religions which it meets, and, pushing this principle to ex- 
tremes, it finds no difficulty in adopting and placing in its pan- 
theon the gods of the nations among which it is transplanted, 
making these deities subordinate to Buddha.'**" Hence it did not 
suppress the gods of Brahmanism, '**' and, by the latter part of 
the fifth century, its doctrines had become mixed with the incon- 
gruous teachings of the Brahmanic religion, *^" and the term 
" A Brahman Buddhist " is an expression that occurs more than 
once.'^^ It is particularly in what is called Northern Buddhism 
that Brahmanic ideas are most prevalent,""^ and the religion in- 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 5i5 

troduced into Thibet was much corrupted by Sivaisin — a mixture 
of witchcraft and Hindu philosophy. '^"^ In Java, also, the wor- 
ship was that of Siva united to Buddhism ; "" and Crawfurd holds 
that the testimony afforded by the relics of Hinduism, in the 
principal temples of Java, may be considered as a proof that the 
religions of Brahma and Buddha are essentially the same, the 
one being nothing but a modification of the other. "^^ Dr. Ste- 
venson, of Bombay, in an article contributed to the seventh vol- 
ume of the " Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," mentions a sect 
in the Marhatta country, in Guzerat, Central India, and the Carna- 
tic, who combine the worship of Buddha with that of Vishnu.'^^* 
It is well known that the Buddhists of India admitted a great num- 
ber of Indian idols into their temples, and that even now, in the 
countries in which Buddhism is the ruling religion, they do not 
exclude the local divinities from their places of worship ; but that 
now, as formerly, they unite the doctrines of the local religion 
with those properly pertaining to their own system, or subordi- 
nate the former to the latter.'*"' All accounts agree that, when 
gods that are plainly and decidedly Brahmanic are found in 
connection with Buddhistic ideas, it is usually Siva and the 
mythical beings connected with that worship that are found, and 
very seldom either Brahma or Yishnu, or idols of this branch of 
the Indian pantheon. Schmidt notices this fact, especially, also, 
in regard to the nations of Central Asia.""^ 

Convincing proofs of a connection between Buddhism and 
the worship of Siva are furnished by the ruins of Buddha-Gaya, 
and the religious situation in Nepal. In the first, so many of 
the sculptures are connected with the worship of Siva, that 
Buchanan-Hamilton thought it probable that the former Bud- 
dhists of this region worshiped more especially Siva and the ac- 
companying destroying feminine power. The number of these 
remains is as great as those of the images of Buddha, and some 
are so large and remarkable that they can not be considered as 
mere decorations. In Nepal, the worship of Siva is so mixed 
with Buddhistic customs and ideas, in the views and religion 
of the people, that the pure teachings of Buddha can only be 
learned from the religious books.'"" 

Two scholars who have studied this subject with a thorough 
knowledge of Oriental writings, MM. Schmidt and W. von Hum. 
boldt, have asked why Buddhism allies itself rather with Sivaism 
35 



546 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

than with Vishnuism, and the conclusion is reached that there 
has not been a complete fusion of the two religions, but that there 
has been merely the practice of diverse ceremonies, and an adora- 
tion by the Buddhists of different gods belonging properly to the 
worship of Siva ; the worshipers being but little disquieted by 
the discordance between their ancient faith and their new super- 
stitions/" 

Count Stolberg is of opinion that the two great religious 
sects of India, the worshipers of Vishnu and those of Siva, have 
spread over America, and that the Peruvian cult is that of Vish- 
nu, when he appeared in the form of Krishna, or the Sun, while 
the sanguinary religion of the Mexicans is analogous to that of 
Siva, in the character of the Stygian Jupiter. The wife of Siva, 
the black goddess Kali, or Bhavani, symbol of death and destruc- 
tion, wears, according to Hindu statues and pictures, a necklace 
of human skulls. The Vedas ordain human sacrifices in her 
honour. The ancient cult of Kali, continues Humboldt, presents, 
without doubt, a marked resemblance to that of Mictlancihuatl, 
the Mexican goddess of hell. (Quoted from Humboldt, "Vues," 
tome i, pp. 256-257, and " Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi," 
tome i, p. 426.)*"* 

Bancroft adds that, not only does the worship of Mictlanci- 
huatl preserve the most perfect analogy with that of the sangui- 
nary and implacable Kali, but the legends of the Mexican divin- 
ity Teoyamiqui recall with equal force the formidable Bha- 
vani ; both these Indian deities were wives of Siva Rudra."* 

M. Viollet-le-Duc notes a similar analogy between the 
Brahmanic ideas concerning the divinity and certain passages 
of the Popol- Vuh, or Sacred Book of the Quiches of Central 
America."" 

The Abbe BrasseurdeBourbourg suggests "*tbat Quetzalcoatl 
introduced the drawing of blood by thorns as a hygienic meas- 
ure, rather than as an act of religious worship. It seems more 
probable, however, that the five Buddhist monks were devotees 
of an impure form of Buddhism, more or less mixed with the 
worship of Siva, and that they introduced into Mexico religious 
penances somewhat similar to those which they had practiced in 
their distant home north of India. 

The analogy between the religion introduced into Mexico by 
Quetzalcoatl and that prevalent in Eastern Asia, and between the 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 547 

arts of these two regions of the world, will be considered here- 
after. For the present, it is sufficient to note that all the tradi- 
tions represent this missionary to have been of an exceedingly- 
chaste and quiet life, and of great moderation in all things. The 
people had at least three reasons for the great love, reverence, 
and devotion with which they regarded him : first, he taught the 
silversmith's art, a craft the Cholulans greatly prided themselves 
on ; second, he desired no sacrifice of the blood of men or ani- 
mals, but delighted only in offerings of bread, roses, and other 
flowers, or perfumes, and sweet odours ; third, he prohibited 
and forbade all war and violence,^'" and even covered his ears 
when the subject was mentioned.^" 

He taught not only the art of casting metals,'"*^ but also 
that^of cutting gems,'*'" and, as some say,''" taught them the 
arrangement of their seasons and calendar.'*^ He also taught 
the people agriculture.*" 

The influence of his teachings was so great that the predic- 
tion which he made when he left them, that in the future his 
descendants (or the people of his nation) would return '*' to 
moderate the laws of the country and put its government in or- 
der,**" was firmly believed in, both by Montezuma and his peo- 
ple, at the time of the coming of the Spaniards ; and much of the 
ease with which they conquered the country was due to the fact 
that their arrival was regarded as a fulfillment of this predic- 
tion."'' 

In the legends regarding Quetzalcoatl it is usually stated that 
when he became oppressed with the" weight of old age he was 
induced to drink,"*^ as a medicine, of the intoxicating liquor ''"' 
prepared from the juice of the agave,^"' notwithstanding the fact 
that when first urged to taste it he replied, " No ; I can not drink 
it : I can not so much as taste it." ^" Much is said of the sorrow 
which he evinced at having thus weakly yielded to temptation. 
Now, although it can not be claimed that this doctrine of " total 
abstinence " is peculiar to the Buddhist religion, it seems at least 
worthy of notice that on this point, as on so many others, the 
principles by which this teacher professed to be governed were y 
in strict accordance with the doctrines of the Buddhists. Accord- 
ing to their teachings, of the five crimes, the taking of life, theft, 
adultery, lying, and drinking, the last is the worst ; for, though a 
man be ever so wisej when he drinks he becomes foolish, and like 



548 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

an idiot. It is therefore the cause of all other sins, and for this 
reason it is the greatest crime."" 

Possibly the true etymology of the name Quetzalcoatl may 
be of assistance in forming a conclusion as to the character of 
the man to whom it was apj^lied. As quetzalli is the name of a 
species of feathers much valued by the Mexicans ; as coatl means 
^' serjjent " ; and as the Aztecs wrote the name by picturing a ser- 
pent with feathers — it has been thought that the meaning was 
"Plumed Serpent," and no other derivation has been sought. 
The French editors of Sahagun's work, however, give the follow- 
ing definition of the term quetzalli : "" " This is a very long and 
beautiful feather from the tail of the bird {tototl) called quetzal 
tototl. It is so valued that the Mexicans metaphorically address 
a beloved child by the word noquetzale, ' Oh, my beautiful feather! ' 
They also designate by this term a chief, a superior, a father, a 
mother — in one word, any poxoerful person.''^ By reference to 
the Aztec dictionaries it will be seen that coatl not only means a 
serpent, but from its compounds it is evident that the word once 
also had the meaning of a guest or a visitor. The compound 
Quetzalcoatl is therefore susceptible of the meaning " the revered 
guest," or " the honoured visitor," and I am strongly of the 
opinion that the term should be so translated, rather than by the 
absurd rendering of " the Plumed Serpent." * 

In this connection it should be noticed that the Buddhist 
priests of Nepal are frequently referred to in their religious books 
by the term Vadjra dtchdrya, meaning " the diamond teacher," 
or " the precious teacher," *^* and it can not be considered strange 
that the leader of this party of missionaries should have been 
given a name which is practically a translation of the title which 
he had borne in his own country. 

The most serious objection that can be urged against the 
theory which identifies Quetzalcoatl with the leader of the party 
of Buddhist monks mentioned by Hwui Shan is that Quetzal- 

* One of the highest officers of the Mexican government bore the title of 
" Cihuacoatl." This has usually been translated " the Woman-Serpent." I would 
suggest that its true meaning is " the women's guest," or '' the wives' guest." In 
some of the islands of the Pacific Ocean there is an officer, standing next in rank 
to the chief, who, during the absence of the latter on military expeditions, fills 
his place at home in both governmental and domestic affairs. The rank and title 
of the Mexican Cihuacoatl suggest that his duties were the same, when the office 
was first established, if not at the time of the Spanish conquest. — E. P. V. 



MEXICAN TEADITIONS. 549 

coatl is said to have come from the east. All the incidental cir- 
cumstances that are mentioned, however, agree so closely with the 
theory that this reformer came from Asia, and are so incompatible 
with the belief that he came from EuroiDe, that the mere mention 
of the east is not sufficient to outweigh them all. I can only 
suggest as possible exf)lanations, the following : 

^irst. — The party may have crossed the western portion of 
the American Continent by some one of the routes pointed out 
by Mr. Morgan,'"^ and have reached the Gulf of Mexico by way 
of the Mississippi River, and hence have arrived at Mexico from 
the east, while Hwui Shan, who seems to have become separated 
from the rest, came down the Pacific coast. 

Second. — As the party left Asia by M'ay of Corea and Japan, 
their references to these countries as " the Land of the Freshness 
of the Dawn,""^^ and " the Land of the Rising Sun "'''' (these 
phrases being translations of the names of the countries in ques- 
tion), may have led to the impression that the country from 
which they came lay to the east ; Chivim,^^^ the term preserved 
in Guatemala as the name of the land from which Yotan came,*" 
is at least as near to the name of Japan as the form SipangUy 
which is given by Marco Polo. 

Third. — The old traditions may have had this statement 
added to them after the arrival from the east of the Spaniards, 
who were supposed to be the descendants of their former prophet 
and teacher. Bandelier calls attention to the fact, that it was 
not until many years after the conquest that the detail that 
Quetzalcoatl came from or sailed to the east was added to the 
earlier accounts regarding him, and he reaches the conclusion 
that ^^' there is absolutely no evidence to prove that this return 
was expected by sea, rather than by land, or, in general, from 
any quarter or country whatever in preference to any other. 

The reference to crosses upon the mantle of Quetzalcoatl may 
have been another addition to the legend that was made after 
the arrival of the Spaniards ; and the fact that some versions of 
the story refer to the figures as flowers, rather than as crosses, 
would seem to favour this belief. It is undeniable, however, that 
crosses were actually found in Mexico and Central America by 
the Spaniards. Signor Zaraacois gives both the following ac- 
count of the discovery of a cross and a theory which seems to 
give a reasonable explanation of its existence: 



550 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

" When the expedition of Grijalva reached the island of 
Cozumel, near the coast of Yucatan, he called the attention of 
the Spaniards to the solidity of the houses, and the beautiful 
construction of a number of temples, all of lime and stone. 
Among the last there was one surpassing all the rest, of a pyra- 
midical form, surrounded by a wall, in the spacious lower porch 
of which a stone cross, three yards in height, and perfectly 
worked, was conspicuous. 

*'The sight of this cross, and of many others which were 
afterward found in the peninsula of Yucatan, has caused many to 
suppose that the apostle St, Thomas came to preach the Gospel in 
these remote counti'ies. Other writers suspect that in 1517 the 
Governor Don Francisco Montejo reached a point only fourteen 
leagues distant from Merida, and that the inhabitants, when the 
Spaniards, whom they took for celestial beings, had retired, 
adopted the cross among their divinities. But no one of the sup- 
positions that have been made regarding the origin of the sign 
of the cross in Yucatan rests upon a secure basis, and they are 
all open to question. If I may be permitted to enter the vast 
field of simple conjecture, I will venture to state my opinion in 
respect to the manner in which, as I conceive, the cross may 
have been planted in that part of the New World, while it was 
not encountered in any other part of America, 

"The island of Cuba was occupied by Velasquez in 1511, when 
the Indians embraced Catholicism almost immediately. Various 
insurrections set on foot by the caciques, and crushed out by the 
Spaniards, obliged many Indians to emigrate from the island ; 
but it is reasonable to suppose that they would not seek countries 
under the rule of the Europeans. It being then impossible for 
them to seek a home in San Domingo, it might easily happen 
that, floating aimlessly on the sea, they should be thrown by 
the currents upon Cozumel, or some other place upon the coast 
of Yucatan. Being admitted among the inhabitants, and con- 
tinuing the adoration of the cross of the new religion, of which 
they had scarcely any true knowledge, it might easily happen 
that the inhabitants, hearing of the prodigies which they related 
regarding it, should have admitted it into the list of their divini- 
ties, while having no knowledge whatever of that which it sym- 
bolized. 

"This is merely a conjecture, although it seems to be based 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 551 

upon some probability. In any case, it is true that the cross 
figured in the religion of various tribes of the peninsula of Yu- 
catan, and that it represented the god of Rain." ^^" 

Bandelier thinks, however, that the crosses, which were fre- 
quently used previously to the conquest by the aborigines of 
Mexico and Central America, were merely designed as ornaments, 
and were not the objects of worship among them, while the so- 
called crucifixes, like that on the " Palenque tablet," were only 
the symbol of the "new fire," or close of a period of fifty-two 
years. He believes them to be merely representations of " fire- 
drills," more or less ornamented.'"^ 

The theory of Signor Zamacois, that there was more or less 
communication between the natives of the West India Islands 
and those of Yucatan, prior to the time that the Spaniards 
reached this last-named country, is confirmed, however, both by 
the fact that a god named Hurakan, the deification of the power 
of the tempest, was worshiped alike in these two regions,^"^ and by 
the circumstances that the natives of Espailola are said to have 
received an oracle, shortly before Columbus's arrival, announcing 
the coming of bearded men with sharp, bright swords. (Villa- 
gutierre, " Hist. Conq. Itza.," p. 33.) The Yucatec records abound 
in predictions to the same effect, more or less clear. The most 
widely quoted is that of Chilam Balam, high - priest of Mani, 
and reputed a great prophet, who foretold that, ere many years, 
there would come from the direction of the rising sun a bearded 
white people, bearing aloft the cross which he displayed to his 
listeners. Their gods would flee before the new-comers, and 
leave them to rule the land, but no harm would fall on the peace- 
ful, who admitted the only true God. The priest had a cotton 
mantle woven, to be deposited in the temple at Mani, as a spe- 
cimen of the tribute required by the new rulers, and he it was 
who erected the stone crosses found by the Spaniards, declaring 
them to be the true tree of the world. Cogalludo, " Hist. Yu- 
cathan," pp. 99-101, gives the prophecy at length.*" 

These prophecies can hardly be accounted for on any other 
theory than that their authors had obtained some knowledge of 
the arrival of the Spaniards in the neighbouring islands, and that 
they thought it safe to predict that these wonderful strangers 
would soon find their way to Yucatan. 

If it be thought that the mantle of Wixipecocha was really 



552 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

embroidered with crosses, their presence may possibly be ac- 
counted for by remembering that the cross was venerated as 
the object of religious worship in regions of Asia where the 
light of Christianity had never risen. '^"'^ That it was of pagan, not 
of Christian origin ; ^^^ that in the earliest times it was the most 
sacred symbol in the eyes of our Aryan ancestors (see " Edin- 
burgh Review" for October, 1870) ; ^' that it was the sign used 
to seal the jars of holy water taken from the Nile and Ganges ; ^"' 
that it was the monogram of Vishnu and Siva,*"** and was used in 
India before the Christian era as a symbol of Buddha,"* and a sign 
of recognition of orthodoxy in Buddhism."' The form of cross 
most frequently used for these purposes is known as the Swas- 
tika '-^'^ fylfot, or gammadion, and this same form was frequently 
used by the Christians of the Middle Ages as a decorative de- 
vice.'""^ 

Mr. Godfrey Higgins, in his " Celtic Druids," p. 126, says : 
" Few causes have been more powerful in producing mistakes 
in ancient history than the idea, hastily taken up by Christians 
in all ages, that every monument of antiquity marked with a cross, 
or with any of those symbols which they conceived to be mono- 
/ / grams of Christ, were of Christian origin. . . . The cross is as 
[ common in India as in Egypt and Europe." ^^ 

If crosses were actually worn upon the mantle of Wixipeco- 
cha, they may have been used, as they still are in the curtains of 
the windows of Buddhist monasteries in Thibet, as symbols of 
quietness or peace."^^ In Japan the loop-holes of the forts are, 
in times of peace, covered with such curtains embroidered with 
crosses ; when a war breaks out they are removed. This mis- 
sionary may, therefore, have worn them as a traveler might now 
carry a white flag : as a sign of peaceful intentions. 

The disagreement between the several versions of the tradi- 
tion, as to the nature of the ornaments with which his mantle 
was adorned, seems rather to indicate, however, that the story 
owed its origin to the fact that the outer garment of Buddhist 
priests is, in accordance with the commands of the founder of 
their religion, made of patchwork. 

The physician Juvaka, having given two magnificent robes 
to Gotama Buddha, the sage reflected that if the priests were 
allowed to receive robes of this description they would be in dan- 
ger from thieves, and he therefore intimated this danger to his 



MEXICAN TRADITIONS. 553 

attendant, Ananda, who cut them into thirty pieces, and then 
sewed them together in five divisions, so that the robe resembled 
the patches in a rice-field divided by embankments.'^^* On see- 
ing this contrivance, Buddha made a law that his priests should 
only have three robes at one time, and that they should always 
be composed of thirty pieces of cloth.'*'* Buddhist ascetics have 
three kinds of dresses : First. The Seng-kia-li, so called from a 
Sanskrit word {sanghdti), signifying <' joined or doubled," be- 
cause it is made of pieces cut and united together again. As to 
its use, it is called " a dress to enter the palace of kings," or " a 
dress for a public place," because it is worn on the occasion of 
preaching the law in palaces, as well as begging in the cross- 
ways. Second. Yu-to-lo-seng {uttarasanghdti), a Sanskrit 
word signifying the " upper garment," " surtout " ; it consists of 
seven pieces, and is worn on the occasion of ceremonies, prayers, 
festivals, and preaching. Third. An-tho-hoei : this word means 
an inner vesture used in sleep and worn next the body. A 
Buddhist work calls it "the nether garment," and states that it 
is composed of five pieces. Its use is defined to be " a garment 
formed of several pieces worn in-doors by those who practice the 
law." Its Sanskrit name is antaravdsaJca.^^^^ 

A mantle so patched that it " resembled the patches in a 
rice-field divided by embankments " may easily have given rise 
to the story that it was embroidered with crosses. 

It should be noticed that the tradition states that when 
Wixipecocha disappeared he left the imprint of his feet engraved 
upon the rock on which he had stood ; it is also said of Quetzal- 
coatl that, in a valley near Tlalnepantla or Tanepantla, he 
pressed hand and foot into a rock with such force that the im- 
pression has remained down to the latest centuries.'*^ Similar 
statements are also made regarding the mysterious teachers men- 
tioned in the legends of several nations of South America, and 
referred to in the following chapter. I can hardly think it a mere 
coincidence that a favourite form of relic worship among the 
Buddhists consists of respect paid to the impressions of Gotama's 
foot, called 8ri-pdda. On the third visit of the sage to Ceylon, 
in the eighth year after he obtained the Buddhaship, he left 
such an impression on the summit of the mountain, usually 
known by the name of Adam's Peak, seven thousand four hun- 
dred and twenty feet above the level of the sea, intended as " a 



554 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

seal to declare that Lanka would be the inheritance of Buddha." 
In the same journey he left other impressions of a similar kind 
in different parts of India.'"* 

Buddhists mention a great many foot-prints of this kind ; the 
veneration these receive, scarcely inferior to that paid to Bud- 
dha himself, has no doubt contributed, to augment the number. It 
is quite plain that every country must have its own, and that each 
sect pretends to honour in it the divinity it adores, or the head 
of the doctrine it has embraced. All, therefore, do not belong to 
Sakya Muni ; indeed, the Pali texts recognize but five genuine 
ones, named Pancha pra ^mtha, " the five divine feet." Captain 
Low has devoted an article to this subject in the " Translations 
of the Royal Asiatic Society of London." '^^^ 

Foot-prints of this nature are mentioned by Fa Hian as exist- 
ing near Palibothra,'*'^ and in the kingdom in the north of India 
which he designates as Ou-chang,'^' as well as in Ceylon."^" 



CHAPTER XXXL 

VARIOUS AMERICAN TRADITIONS. — BUDDHISM. 

White and bearded men wearing long robes— The great numbers of countries in 
which such traditions exist— Non-intercourse between them — Traditions of 
Yucatan— Zamna and Cukulcan — The introduction of the alphabet — Attend- 
ants—The name Cukulcan— The three brothers of Chichen Itza— The build- 
ings erected — The teachings of Cukulcan — His departure — The survival of his 
doctrines — Votan — His long-robed attendants— Resemblance of name "Vo- 
tan " to Asiatic perversions of " Gautama " — The time of these visits — The 
" katuns " of Yucatan— South American traditions— The Muyscas— Their civil- 
ization—The arrival of a white stranger— His names— The arts he taught— His 
doctrines — The veneration of the people for him — Resemblance of his names 
to Buddhist titles— A Pachcheko—The Updsakas—The Chinese JIo Shane/— 
Tradition of the Guaranis— Tamoi, Tamu, Tume, or Zume— His teachings— 
The impress of his foot-prints— The tradition in Paraguay — His promise to re- 
turn — Adventure of the fathers de Montoya and de Mendoza — The Brazilian 
tradition — The great road — Foot-prints — Another tradition — The story in 
Chili — Tonapa in Peru — His appearance — His mildness — His teachings — His 
departure — Viracocha — The pyramids of Peru — Con, or Contice — The Bud- 
dhist decalogue — ^Avoidance of women — Buddhist practices — The dress of the 
priests — Hats not worn by the Indians — Resemblance of teachings of the 
American culture-heroes to those of the Roman Catholics — Resemblances be- 
tween Buddhism and Roman Catholicism — Their monasteries — Their doctrines 
— The costume of the Grand Lama — Belief in an early mixture of Christianity 
and Buddhism — A Central American image — The calendar — The arts prac- 
ticed by Buddhist priests — The art of casting metals — Sculptured vases. 

It is a remarkable fact that, throughout all the American Con- 
tinent south of the United States, there were traditions of a -visit 
by one or more white and bearded men, dressed in long robes, 
who taught the people all the religious precepts as well as all the 
arts with which they were acquainted at the time that they were 
first visited by Europeans. These tales are so similar that the 
first impulse is to believe that they must have been borrowed by 
one nation from another ; and yet there was so little possibility 



556 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of intercourse between the tribes of Yucatan, Central America, 
New Grenada, Brazil, Peru, Chili, and Paraguay, that this theory- 
seems wholly untenable. Barney says that while some portions 
of the legends of New Grenada bear so close a resemblance to 
those of Mexico that one is led to suspect invention and collu- 
sion among historians or their informers, yet it is very difficult 
to see how such could have been, or what object was to be gained 
by the deception."^" The only other reasonable explanation of 
the existence of these stories, among tribes so widely separated, is 
that each nation actually preserved some recollection of a visit 
from a missionary who taught the doctrines which were still 
enshrined in their hearts, and, if so, the missionary can hardly 
have been any other than one of the party described by Hwui 
Shan. These devoted men seem to have become separated, and 
some of them continued to push on farther and farther into the 
unknown land to which they had found the way, until they at 
last wandered as far as Chili and Paraguay. 

In Yucatan, nearly or quite every tribe had its traditions of 
teachers who came in the distant past to seek new homes, escape 
persecutions, or introduce new ideas.^" The most popular names 
were Zamna and Cukulcan, both culture-heroes, and considered 
by some to be identical. The tradition relates that, some time 
after the fall of the Quinamean empire, Zamna appeared in Yu- 
catan, coming from the west, and was received with great re- 
spect wherever he stayed. Besides being the inventor of the 
alphabet, he is said to have named all points and places in the 
country. '^^ He was also called Itznamna, and the Indians gave 
the same name to the characters which they used as letters (Co- 
golludo, " Hist. Yuc," p. ISS).*"' He was accompanied by a band 
of priests and artisans, and was the first temporal and religious 
leader of the people,''^' and, like Yotan, united in himself the 
qualities of ruler, law-giver, educator, and priest.^" 

Cukulcan appeared in Yucatan from the west, with nineteen 
followers, two of whom were gods of fishes, two gods of farms, 
and one of thunder, all wearing full beards, long robes, and san- 
dals, but no head-covering. This event is supposed to have oc- 
curred at the very time that Quetzalcoatl disappeared in the 
neighbouring province of Coatzacoalco, a conjecture, which, in 
addition to the similarity of the names, character, and work of the 
heroes, forms the basis for their almost generally accepted iden- 



AMEKICAN TRADITIONS. • 557 

^•^344 rpijg name Cukulcan is merely the Maya translation of 
the Aztec term Quetzalcoatl. 

At Chichen Itza, ten leagues from Itzamal, the ancients say 
there reigned three lords, brothers, who came from the west, and 
gathered^'together many people, and reigned some years in peace 
and justice ; and they constructed large and very beautiful edi- 
fices. It is said that they lived unmarried and very chastely ; 
and it is added that in time one of them was missing, and that 
his absence worked such bad results that the other two began to 
be unchaste and partial ; and thus the people came to hate them, 
and slew them, and scattered abroad, and deserted the edifices, 
especially the most stately one, which is ten leagues from the sea. 
" Those who established themselves at Chichen Itza call them- 
selves Itzas : among these there is a tradition that there ruled a 
great lord called Cukulcan, and all agree that he came from the 
west ; and the only difference among them is as to whether he 
came before, or after, or with the Itzas ; but the name of the 
building at Chichen Itza, and what happened after the death of 
the lords above mentioned, show that Cukulcan ruled the coun- 
try jointly with them. He was a man of good disposition ; was 
said not to have had either wife or children, and not to have 
known woman ; he was devoted to the interests of the people, 
and for this reason was regarded as a god. In order to pacify 
the land, he agreed to found another city, where all business 
could be transacted. He selected for this purpose a site eight 
leagues farther inland from where now stands the city of Merida, 
and fifteen leagues from the sea. There they erected a circular 
wall of dry stone, about a half-quarter of a league in diameter, 
leaving in it only two gate-ways. They erected temples, giving 
to the largest the name Cukulcan, and also constructed around 
the wall the houses of the lords among whom Cukulcan had di- 
vided the land, giving and assigning towns to each." * 

Bancroft believes that Cukulcan should be identified with 
Quetzalcoatl, and he regards his appearance, and the rule of the 
three "holy princes" at Chichen and Mayapan, as the first intro- 
duction of the Nahua influence in Yucatan.**" The teachings of 
Cukulcan forbade the sacrifice of human victims,^^' and he intro- 
duced the practice of confession.^' 

* Translated from Herrera's " Historia de las Indias Occidentales," dec. iv, 
lib. X, cap. ii.*^^ 



558 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Another singularity is presented in his history : it is his ab- 
dication and departure from Yucatan. Nothing in the short 
fragments that we possess indicates the motives which induced 
him to take this course. No other reason can be seen than his 
great age, or the fear of drawing the arms of his enemies upon 
the Mayas.*" 

After the mysterious departure of Cukulcan from Yucatan, 
the people, convinced that he had gone to the abode of the gods, 
deified him, and built temples and instituted feasts in his honour.-*^ 

The first seven sovereigns who reigned after Cukulcan, upon 
the throne of Mayapan, continued, in emulation one of the others, 
to render services to their country which surrounded the reign 
of the Cocomes with a glorious aureole. Without excepting the 
re-establishment of justice, and the exact observance of the civil 
and religious laws so strongly recommended by Cukulcan as the 
only basis of national prosperity, tradition, usually so vague, 
mentions fully their benefactions to their subjects, and the mon- 
uments which they erected in so many places. Fountains, roads, 
palaces, temples, schools, hospitals for the old and infirm, retreats 
for widows and orphans, inns for travelers and pilgrims, baths, 
and artificial ponds : such were the titles of the Cocomes to the 
public remembrance."^ 

In Guatemala a story is told of a culture-hero named Votan, 
«23 very similar in its details to those which have already been 
given regarding Wixipecocha, Quetzalcoatl, Cukul can, and Zamna. 
He brought with him, according to one statement, or, according 
to another, was followed from his native land by, certain attend- 
ants or subordinates, called in the myth tzequil, " petticoated," 
from the long and flowing robes they wore.*^' Bancroft thinks 
that he was probably a companion of Zamna.***^ 

To me the name Votan seems to be a possible corruption of 
" Gautama," which in Chinese is changed to Kiu-tan^ in Thibetan 
to Geoiitam,^*^^ in Siamese to JTodom, and in Manchu and Mongo- 
lian to Godam; "" while Zamna may possibly be the Sanskrit 
Sramana, the Siamese Somona, an epithet often attached to the 
name Gautama,"" and a term afterward applied to those of his 
disciples who devoted their life to his service. It is the Chinese 
Sha-man already referred to, which appears in English in the 
same form, and which is the usual designation of Buddhist priests. 

As to the time w'hen these missionaries visited Yucatan and 



AMERICAN TRADITIONS. 559 

Guatemala, the only clew that we have is contained in the records 
known as the Books of Chilan Balam, which have been preserved 
in Yucatan. The total period of time, from the earliest date 
given to the settlement of the country by the Spaniards, is sev- 
enty-one " katuns." If the katun is estimated at twenty years, 
this equals 1,420 years ; if at twenty-four years, then we have 
1,704 years. 

All the native writers agree, and in spite of the contrary 
statement of Bishop Landa we may look upon it as beyond 
doubt, that the last day of the eleventh katun was July 15th, 
1541. Therefore one of the above calculations would carry us 
back to A. D. 121, the other to b. c. 173, 

The chief possibility of error in the reckoning would be from 
confusing the great cycles of 260 (or 312) years, one with an- 
other, and assigning events to different cycles which really 
happened in the same. This would increase the number of the 
cycles, and thus extend the period of time they appeared to 
cover. This has undoubtedly been done in at least one case.*^' 

Thomas believes that,*'^ if we assume that these great periods 
were numbered in regular order, 1, 2, 3, 4, which is more than 
probable, as they were but seldom referred to, then we have evi- 
dence that the Itza record ran back three great cycles — 936 years 
before the year a. d. 1519, that is, to the year 583 of the Chris- 
tian era.*^® He also fixes the date when the Itzas set out upon 
their travels from Tulapan to Chichen Itza as between the years 
486 and 510.^«' 

Bancroft thinks that these visits occurred " within the first 
two centuries of the Christian era." "" The Abbe Brasseur de 
Bourbonrg thinks the year 174 a. d. to be the earliest historical 
date named in the records of Yucatan ; *'^ and Lenoir '"' mentions 
660 A. D. as the year in which Huematzin, a celebrated Toltecan 
astronomer, wrote the divine book Teoamoxtli, containing the 
history of the heavens and the earth, the cosmogony, the descrip- 
tion of the constellations, the divisions of time, the migrations 
of the people, the mythology, and the moral law.""^' 

It will be seen that, while the exact date can not be deter- 
mined from the traditions or records of Yucatan, they seem to 
fix the time of the introduction of civilization into the country, 
by these white, bearded, and long-robed teachers, at about the 
same era as the dates mentioned by Hwui Shun — 458 and 499 a. d. 



560 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

In South America there are numerous traditions of a visit by 
civilized strangers. On the lofty plateau of the Andes, in New 
Grenada, where, though nearly under the equator, the tempera- 
ture is that of a perpetual spring, was the fortunate home of the 
Muyscas. It is the true Eldorado of America — every mountain- 
stream a Pactolus, and every hill a mine of gold. The natives 
were peaceful in disposition, skilled in smelting and beating the 
precious metal that was everywhere at hand, lovers of agricul- 
ture, and versed in the arts of spinning, weaving, and dyeing cot- 
ton. Their remaining sculptures prove them to have been of no 
mean ability in designing, and it is asserted that they had a form 
of writing, of which their signs for the numerals have alone been 
preserved. 

The knowledge of these various arts they attributed to the 
instructions of a wise stranger, who dwelt among them many 
cycles before the arrival of the Spaniards. He came from the 
east, from the llanos of Venezuela, or beyond them, and it is said 
that the path he made was broad and long, a hundred leagues in 
length, and led directly to the holy temple at his shrine at Soga- 
moso. In the province of Ubaque his foot-prints on the solid rock 
were reverently pointed out long after the conquest. His hair 
was abundant, his beard fell to his waist, and he dressed in long 
and flowing robes.^^'' 

His names were various, but one of the most usual was Chimi- 
zapagua, which we are told means a messenger from Chimini- 
gagua ; other names applied to this hero-god were Nemtereque- 
teba, Bochica, and Zuhe or Sua, the last mentioned being the 
ordinary word for the sun. He was reported to have been of 
light coraplexion.^^^ He it was who invented the calendar and 
regulated the festivals.^*" He also taught them how to build 
and to sow, formed them into communities, gave an outlet to 
the waters of the great lake, and, having settled the government, 
civil and ecclesiastic, retired into a monastic state of penitence 
for two thousand years.^'* 

"The matters that Bochica taught," says the chronicler Pie- 
drahita, " were certainly excellent, inasmuch as these natives 
hold as right to do just the same that we do." " The priests of 
these Muyscas," he goes on to say, " lived most chastely and 
with great purity of life, insomuch that, even in eating, their food 
was simple and of small quantity, and they refrained altogether 



AMERICAN TRADITIONS. 561 

from women and marriage. Did one transgress in this respect, 
he was dismissed from the priesthood. '^^ 

Barney relates the legends regarding this teacher, as fol- 
lows : "* " The ' culture-hero,' who, according to one of their tra- 
ditions, was the originator and organizer of their religion and 
laws, was generally designated by two names, Nemterequeteba, 
or " the sent from God," and Xue-Chimzapaque, which had a 
similar signification. . . . He taught the people not only to spin 
and weave, but to colour their cloths red and blue, yellow and 
brown, etc., that they should not forget his teachings. He also 
instructed them in government and a system of religious faith, 
which bears much resemblance to the doctrines of Christ, not- 
withstanding the many perversions which crept in during the 
lapse of the ages after his departure. ... So great was the ven- 
eration of the people for him that, to facilitate his return, they 
constructed and paved a road that he might ascend again to the 
plain with ease. He was not worshiped by the Chibchas as a 
god, but was greatly venerated as a man of wonderful purity of 
life and of great usefulness. The early priests of the Catholic 
faith seem to have believed that this culture - hero could have 
been none other than St. Bartholomew or St. Thomas." 

In the name Nemterequeteba, the last three syllables seem to 
be a corruption of " Gautama." Bochica may possibly be for 
the Sanskrit " Pachcheko," which is a terra applied to an inferior 
being, or saint, who is never co-existent with a supreme Buddha ; 
"'^ or it may represent the term " Upasaka," "^' a title applied to 
lay devotees of Buddha,^^ whose duties are thus described : '*^* 

" The class of persons called Upasakas, in some districts, and 
especially in the neighbourhood of Matura, go about from house 
to house, after the manner of the Scripture-readers, reading works 
on religion that are written in the vernacular Singhalese, accom- 
panied with familiar expositions. It is by this means that Bud- 
dhism is,, in many places, principally supported." 

The Upasakas were under vows of chastity, etc., but not so 
completely as the Bhikshus. A Bhikshu, or full Buddhist monk, 
was forbidden to labour in the field, but the Upasaka was not ; 
the Bhikshu wore yellow robes, the Upasaka wore white gar- 
ments. ^^^ 

The expression ho-shaxg, much used in China, is explained 
in the ordinary dictionaries as " priest of Foe, bonze." It is for- 
86 



562 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

eign to the Chinese language, and belongs to that of Khoten, in 
which it represents the Sanskrit word Upasaka. The Chinese 
interpret it as/br^es, robore tiati, in vi viventesj also as purissimi 
doctores, and officio proximi, which is further explained by say- 
ing that these are men who by their purity approach the state 
necessary for the reception of the doctrine of Foe. Upasaka 
means simply " faithful," in a religious sense, and is the general 
name of the Buddhists of Ceylon and Pegu. But this word more 
particularly designates the laics,'^" although in Eastern Turkes- 
tan it was extended to all monks.''** 

The Guaranis,'""" from the Rio de la Plata to the Antilles, and 
from the shores of Brazil to the foot of the Bolivian Andes, rev- 
erence, without fearing him, a beneficent being, their first father, 
Tamoi, or "the Venerable Man from Heaven," who appeared 
among them, and taught them agriculture, and finally disap- 
peared in the east, from whence he protected them. Among the 
Guarayos prayers were addressed to him in octagonal cabins, 
but never either offerings or sacrifices. The Payes, or Plaches, 
"sorcerers," were his diviners, his interpreters.''''"'' *""'''"*'^ 

Wherever the wide-spread Tupi-Guaranay race extended, the 
early explorers found the natives piously attributing their knowl- 
edge of the arts of life to a venerable and benevolent old man 
whom they called "our Ancestor," Tamu, or Tume, or Zume, 
The legend was that Pay Zume, as he was called in Paraguay 
(Pay=magician, diviner, priest),* came from the east, from the 
Sun-rising, in years long gone by. The spot where he stood is 
still marked by the impress of his feet.*^* 

Purchas gives the name as Paicume, and states that in Brazil 
the people say that they were taught by him to shave their heads. 
*"*" Brinton says that he was called " Grandfather " and " Old 
Man of the Sky." ^"^ Dobrizhoffer mentions the tradition as ex- 
isting in Paraguay; '-"^ and Charlevoix '^* gives the following full 
account of the legend : 

" There had been current, for a long time past, in the adja- 
cent provinces, a tradition, to which perhaps more credit has 
been given in some relations than it really deserves ; but which, 
however, it is, I believe, as difficult to refute as to prove. As 
soon as the Fathers Cataldino and Maceta had removed to a 
greater distance from the Spanish settlements, in order to meet 

*Pay, father, is a word for priest introduced into America by the Portuguese.'"^ 



AMERICAN TRADITIOXS. 553 

with fewer obstacles to the conversion of the Guaranis, some of 
the principal men among these Indians assured them that they 
had been informed by their ancestors that a holy man called 
Pay Suma, or Pay Tuma, had preached in their country the 
faith of Heaven (so they expressed themselves) ; that numbers 
had put themselves under his conduct ; and that, at his de- 
parture, he had foretold that they and their descendants would 
abandon the worship of the true God, whom he had made known 
to them ; but that, after some hundreds of years, new envoys of 
the same God would appear among them, armed with a cross 
like that which he carried, and would re-establish the same wor- 
ship among their descendants. 

"Some years after this, the Fathers de Montoya and de Men- 
doza, having penetrated into the canton of Tayati, the inhabit- 
ants, seeing them come with crosses in their hands, received 
them, to their great surprise, with uncommon demonstrations of 
joy and affection, and, on the fathers expressing their surprise 
related to them the same passages that the Fathers Cataldino 
and Maceta had heard from other Indians, adding, that the holy 
man was, likewise, called Pay Abara, or " the Father, who lives in 
a State of Celibacy." The tradition of the Brazilians tallies with 
that of the Guaranis, even to adding that the father landed in 
the port of Saints, opposite to the bar of St. Vincent, and that 
he instructed the inhabitants in the arts of cultivating manioc 
and making bread of it. ' 

" There is a great road leading from Brazil to Guayra, which, 
though very seldom used, is never overgrown with any but small 
weeds ; and the natives call it the road of Pay Suma. In short 
there is, above the Assumption, a rock, whose summit forma a 
terrace, where some people imagine they can perceive the tracks 
of human feet ; and the Indians say that it was from this spot 
Pay Suma used to preach the Law of God to their forefathers. 
The Peruvians, who give him the same name, show some simi- 
lar vestiges in their country, and relate a great manv wonders, 
which, they say, the saint wrought among them. Be" this as it 
will, several' Spaniards have given credit to the tradition, and 
pretend that Pay Suma was the apostle Saint Thomas." 

This account is quoted in the proceedings of the Second Ses- 
sion of the Congress of Americanists, >«^»- and the following re- 
marks are added ; 



564 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

" The committee of publication call attention to the facts : 
1. That the tradition in question was first made known by Fathers 
Cataldino and Maceta more than a hundred years after the 
discovery of Paraguay. 2. That Father Charlevoix, a priest of 
the Society of Jesus, was evidently not well convinced of the 
truth of this tradition. 

"The second tradition is also reported by Father Charlevoix 
(tome ii, livre xv, p. 274). 

" This nation is very superstitious. An ancient tradition 
states that the apostle Saint Thomas had preached the Gospel 
in their country (that of the Manacicas), where some of his dis- 
ciples had been sent ; this at least is certain, that among the gross 
fables and the monstrous dogmas of which their religion is com- 
posed, some traces of Christianity may be discovered. It ap- 
pears especially, if what they say is true^ that they have a clear 
idea of a God made man for the good of the human race ; for 
one of their traditions is that a virgin, gifted with a perfect 
beauty, without having known any man, conceived a very beau- 
tiful son, who, when he had arrived at the age of manhood, 
worked great prodigies, resuscitating the dead, making the lame 
walk and giving sight to the blind. Having one day assembled 
a great multitude of people, he was raised into the air, and trans- 
formed into the sun which gives light to us. The Maponos say 
that if he were not at so great a distance all the features of his 
countenance might be distinguished." 

In Chili, also, a similar tradition existed, which is thus re- 
peated by Bancroft : ''"^■ 

In former times, as they (the Chilians) had heard their fa- 
thers say, a wonderful man had come to that country, wearing a 
long beard, with shoes, and a mantle such as the Indians carry 
on their shoulders, who performed many miracles. (Quoted 
from Rosales inedited " History of Chili," in Kingsborough's 
" Mexican Antiquities," vol. vi, p. 419.) 

In Peru the following version of the story was current : "*^ 
" There came to these provinces and kingdoms of Tabantinsuyo, 
a bearded man of medium size, with long hair' and with moder- 
ately long robes, and they say that he was a man who had 
passed the age of youth, having gray hairs, and being thin, and 
traveling with a pilgrim's staff, and that he taught the natives 
with great love, calling them all sons and daughters, a thing 



AMERICAN TRADITIONS. 565 

never before known among the natives, and that he went through 
the provinces performing many miracles and wonderful works ; 
he cured the sick merely by touching them, and they say that he 
spoke all the languages of the country better than the natives, 
and he was called Tonapa or Tarapaca ( Tarapaca means ' eagle '), 
Viracochan pachayachicachan or Pacchacan and Bicchhayca- 
mayoc Cunacuycamayoc. The old men say that the command- 
ments which he preached were very nearly the same as those of 
God, principally the seven precepts. There was lacking only the 
name of God our Lord, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, 
which was a fact well known to the elderly people of those days ; 
and the punishments were severe for those who transgressed 
those commandments. They say that the said Tonapa went 
along the river Chacamarca until he came to the sea, and it is 
understood that he went by the passage * toward the other sea. 
This was investigated and established by the ancient Incas." 

Viracocha, under any and all his surnames, is always described 
as white and bearded, dressed in flowing robes, and of imposing 
mien. His robes were also white, and thus he was figured at the 
entrance of one of his most celebrated temples, that of Urcos. 
His image at that place was of a man with a white robe fall- 
ing to his waist, and thence to his feet.*^'' 

The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg makes the following state- 
ment regarding some of the monuments found in Peru : "* 

" M. L. Angrand, formerly Consul-General in Guatemala, and 
more lately in Peru, who has carefully examined the archseo- 
logical remains of this country, has called our attention to a mat- 
ter of great interest from the double point of view of the art 
and the religion of the American nations. ' In the provinces of 
Huamanga and Abancay, situated to the north of Cuzco, which 
were formerly inhabited by several tribes, of which the princi- 
pal was that of the Huilcas, there are found numerous monu- 
ments of a pyramidal form, comi30sed of several superposed 
terraces, constructed with more or less care. A stair-way mounts 
to the summit of the edifice, and occupies one of the faces. The 
number of terraces varies from three to five, and their total 
height varies from five to thirty metres. These edifices are 
isolated, and there is never more than one in a place, but they 
are always surrounded by other constructions which served as 

* This may be a mountain-pass or a strait. 



566 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

habitations, and some of which were very extensive.' We have 
seen designs of several of these pyramidal edifices ; they are 
true teocallis, like those of Mexico and Central America. These 
designs, taken in connection with the preceding observations, 
confirm the views which we have always held regarding the 
propagation of the civilization and religion of the Toltecs in 
South America, even far beyond the neighbouring provinces of 
the Isthmus of Panama, from which those of Abancay and Hua- 
manga are distant more than four hundred leagues to the south. 
This conviction is supported by the fact that, before the religion 
and the rule of the Incas existed in Peru, there was, according 
to the historians of this country, another more ancient religion, 
which had been preached by a divine personage named Con, or 
Contice (probably the Comitl or Huey-Comitl of the heroic tra- 
ditions of Mexico), who had come to preach the doctrines and the 
knowledge of one God alone, from far beyond the high mount- 
ains of the north. The time, the name of the preacher, and the 
circumstances of his preaching, seem to indicate a disciple of 
Quetzalcoatl, who set forth, perhaps from Cholula, at the same 
time as those whom the prophet sent into Mixteca and Mictlan." 

A full description of the teocallis of Mexico, showing their 
resemblance to the pyramids raised by the Buddhists of Asia, 
will be found in a following chapter. 

The Buddhists have a decalogue which is in some respects 
curiously like that of the Bible. According to the commentators 
upon the Pilgrimage of Fa Hian, the five precepts are : 

1. Not to kill any living being. 

2. Not to steal. 

3. Not to commit adultery or to marry. 

4. Not to lie. 

5. Not to drink wine. 

These five precepts answer to the five corresponding virtues : 
humanity, prudence, justice, sincerity, and urbanity. 
Three others are added to these, making eight : 

6. Not to sit on a large bed, or a large or lofty seat. 

7. Not to wear flowers or ribbons on the dress. 

8. Not to become fond of songs, dances, or comedies. 

The two following are likewise enumerated, completing the 
number of ten : 

9. Not to wear on the arms ornaments of gold or silver. 



BUDDHISM. 567 

10. Not to eat after noon. 

Such are the precepts which the aspirant to the rank of the 
Shamans should observe. They are called " the Ten Precepts 
of the Ascetics." '"» 

The order of the last five does not seem to be settled, as Pro- 
fessor Williams gives them, with some variations in the wording, 
in the order, seventh, eighth, sixth, tenth, and ninth,**^'® and Mr. 
Hardy in the order tenth, eighth, seventh, sixth, and ninth.'*" 

The first five of these obligations are called " the pancha-sil." 
They are repeated by some persons every day at the " pansal," 
especially by the women. The first eight are called " the ata-sil," 
and they are repeated only on "poya" days, or festivals. When 
taken by a laic, they involve the necessity of his living apart 
from his family. 

Among the commands of Buddha was the following which 
he addressed to the Shamans : " Beware of fixing your eyes upon 
women ! If you find yourselves in their company, let it be as 
though you were not present." '"* The tradition as to the care 
with which these teachers avoided the society of women is there- 
fore in strict accordance with the commands of the Buddhist re- 
ligion. 

The priests, from the commencement of their novitiate, are 
shaved ; "^^ but the shaving is often confined to the crown of the 
head, while the remainder of the hair is allowed to grow to its 
full length, and the hair of the Buddhist hermits is allowed to 
grow entirely unshorn,*'" the custom being so general that the 
typical representation of a hermit is always that of a man with 
long uncut hair and beard,'"* while in Chinese the phrase " to let 
the hair fall" means to become a priest or nun.'"* 

When first entering the priesthood the Buddhist monks wear 
black robes ; "** these are sometimes succeeded by yellow gar- 
ments, or, in Corea, by long white robes."" In Tartary the priests 
wear miter-shaped caps,'"' similar to the one which Quetzalcoatl is 
represented to have worn. Schlagintweit thus describes the caps 
of the Thibetan lamas : " They are conical, with a large lap, 
which is generally doubled up, but is let down over the ears in 
cold weather. Some head-priests have a kind of miter of red 
cloth, ornamented with flowers of gold worked in the stuff. This 
latter kind of cap bears a remarkable resemblance to the miters 
of the Roman Catholic bishops.""^" Hats or caps are not worn 



568 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

by any Indian tribe, the nearest approach to them being in the 
case of the Mexicans, who at the most wore merely an ornamental 
head-dress. This fact was seized by most of the Indians of the 
United States as forming the easiest and most characteristic 
means of distinguishing between whites and Indians in their rude 
drawings ; the former always being represented with hats, and 
the latter without. 

The dress of the teachers mentioned in the traditions, and 
the doctrines which they were stated to have taught, were so 
much like those of the Roman Catholic priests, that the Spaniards 
believed that St. Thomas, or some other missionary of the Chris- 
tian faith, had succeeded in carrying the Gospel into this un- 
known quarter of the world. Even at the time of the conquest, 
there were so many analogies between the dogmas and rites of the 
Roman Catholics and those of the Mexicans, which struck Monte- 
zuma"'' and the other chiefs of theland,"^as well as the Span- 
iards, that the latter were often led to ascribe them to imitation 
by Satan of the rites of the Christian Church." It is not sur- 
prising that this resemblance should be noticed, if the teachers 
referred to in the traditions were Buddhist missionaries, as the 
same resemblance has been remarked between Roman Catholi- 
cism and Buddhism in Asia — a resemblance so striking that the 
first Roman Catholic missionaries in Asia, like their brethren in 
Mexico, thought that it must be an imitation by the devil of the 
religion of Christ.""' Every one who visits their monasteries can 
at once discover the resemblance.'"^ 

Their celibacy, their living in communities, their cloisters, 
their service in the choirs, their string of beads, their fasts, and 
their penances, give them so much of the air of Christian monks 
that it is not surprising that a Capuchin should be ready to hail 
them as brothers."" 

Father Grueber was much struck with the extraordinary 
similitude he found, as well in the doctrine as in the rituals, of 
the Buddhists of Lassa to those of his own Romish faith. He 
noticed : 1. That the dress of lamas corresponded with that 
handed down to us in ancient paintings as the dress of the apos- 
tles. 2. That the discipline of the monasteries, and of the dif- 
ferent orders of lamas or priests, bore the same resemblance to 
that of the Romish Church. 3. That the notion of an incarna- 
tion was common to both, as also the belief in Paradise and Pur- 



BUDDHISM. 569 

gatory. 4. He remarked that they made suffrages, alms, prayers, 
and sacrifices for the dead, like the Roman Catholics. 5. That 
they had convents, filled with monks and friars, to the number of 
thirty thousand, near Lassa, who all made the three vows of pov- 
erty, obedience, and chastity, like Roman monks, besides other 
vows. 6. That they had confessors, licensed by the superior 
lamas, or bishops ; and empowered to receive confessions, impose 
penances, and give absolution. Besides all this, there was found 
the practice of using holy water, of singing service in alternation, 
of praying for the dead, and a perfect similarity in the costumes 
of the great and superior lamas to those of the different orders 
of the Romish hierarchy.'"''^ The Buddhists also use rosaries for 
counting the number of their prayers.'^"' 

Father Hue says that he and his companion one day had an 
opportunity of talking with a Thibetan lama for some time, and 
the things he told them about religion .astounded them greatly. 
A brief explanation of the Christian doctrine, which they gave 
to him, seemed scarcely to surprise him ; he even maintained 
that their views differed little from those of the grand lamas 
of Thibet.'^" He adds that, if the person of the grand lama 
did not particularly strike them, his costume did, for it was 
strictly that of their own bishops ; he bore on his head a yellow 
miter, a long staff in the form of a cross (or crosier) was in his 
right hand, and his shoulders were covered with a mantle of 
purple-coloured silk, fastened on the chest with a clasp, and in 
every respect resembling a cope.'"^ 

Hue was led by these resemblances to the belief that the 
modern form of Buddhism in Thibet arose from a mixture of 
Christianity with that religion."*'' The following quotation from 
Marsden shows that he too was inclined to adopt the same opin- 
ion: 

" The belief of an early spreading of the Gospel in these 
parts derives some additional strength from an opinion enter- 
tained by some of the best informed missionaries that the lama 
religion itself is no other than a corrupted species of Christianity ; 
and although this may be too hasty an inference from what they 
had an opportunity of observing in the country, it will not be 
found upon examination so unlikely as it may at first appear. 
In its fundamental principles the religion of the country which 
bears the names of Butan, Thibet, and Tangut, is that of the Bud- 



670 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

dhists of India ; but at the same time the strong resemblance 
between many of the ceremonies and those of the Christian 
churches, both East and West, have been pointed out by every 
traveler who has visited Tartary — from Carpini and Kubruquis, 
by whom it was first noticed, to our countrymen and contempo- 
raries, Bogle and Turner, who resided at the court of one of 
the grand lamas. We find it avowed even by the Jesuit mis- 
sionaries, whom we can not suppose to have been influenced in 
their observation by any undue bias." '"* 

A more probable opinion is, however, that sundry of the 
observances of the Roman Catholic Church were derived from 
Buddhistic sources,'*'^ the chain of evidence that establishes the 
greater antiquity of these practices by the Buddhists being com- 
plete.'°»» 

Isaac Taylor drew attention, in his " Ancient Christianity," to 
the knowledge of Hindoo monasticism possessed by Clement of 
Alexandria, and traced the origin of the monasticism of Chris- 
tianity to that of India.'^** 

On the supposition of the pre-existeuce of Buddhism, such 
as their sacred books describe, and its professors still preach, the 
rapid spread of Christianity in the first and second centuries of 
our era is not surprising. To a mind already impressed with 
Buddhistic belief and Buddhistic doctrines, the birth of a Sav- 
iour and Redeemer for the Western World, recognized as a new 
Buddha by wise men of the East, that is, by Magi, Shamans, or 
Lamas, who had obtained the Arhat sanctification, was an event 
expected, and therefore readily accepted when declared and an- 
nounced. It was no abjuration of an old faith that the teachers 
of Christianity asked of the Buddhists, but a mere qualification 
of an existing belief, by the incorporation into it of the Mosaic 
account of the creation, and of original sin, and the fall of man. 
The Buddhists of the West, accepting Christianity on its first 
announcement, at once introduced the rites and observances 
which for centuries had already existed in India. From that 
country Christianity derived its monastic institutions, its forms 
of ritual, and of church service, its councils or convocations to 
settle schisms or points of faith, its worship of relics, and work- 
ing of miracles through them, and much of the discipline and of 
the dress of the clergy.'^-"" 

As a description of the robes of Buddhist priests is given in 



BUDDHISM. 



671 



some of the foregoing quotations, the following engraving of an 
image found in Campeachy is inserted as showing how accurate a 
knowledge of their appearance has been preserved by tradition. 

The legends assert that the Mexicans and natives of Yuca- 
tan and Central America owed their 
calendar to the same strangers to 
whom they were indebted for nearly 
all the arts which they possessed. It 
is not necessary to attempt to add 
anything to the remarks of Hum- 
boldt on this subject, which are quoted 
in Chapter IX, the resemblance be- 
tween the Asiatic and Mexican cal- 
endars being so great, that he was 
convinced, by this one fact alone, that 
there must have been some early con- 
nection between the two regions of 
the world. Attention may, however, 
be called to the fact that both the 
Javans "^^ and the Mexicans **' had a 
week of five days, *'' by which their 
markets or fairs were regulated."^' 
Just as in Mexico we find Asiatic 
names for the months, but not in their 
proper order, so in Java the names 
of the Hindoo months have been wan- 
tonly transposed,"^* and Crawfurd is 

therefore led to the belief that the Bugis year is the relic of 
an indigenous calendar, which was modified by that of the 
Hindoos ; an explanation which will account equally well for the 
similar transpositions found in the Mexican calendar. Sahagun 
states that the Mexicans attributed their calendar to four sages, 
who "invented judicial astrology, and the art of interpreting 
dreams, established the reckoning of the years, the night, the 
hours, and the differences of the seasons ; all things which were 
preserved under the government of the kings of the Toltecs, the 
Mexicans, the Tepanecas, and the Chichimecas." "'" 

The men who accompanied Quetzalcoatl were said to have 
been cunning artists, especially in casting metals, in the engrav- 
ing and setting of precious stones, and in all kinds of artistic 




Fig. 17. — An image found in 
CampeacSy. 



5Y2 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

sculpture. These were precisely the arts which a party of Bud- 
dhist priests would have been able to teach. Hue says of the 
lamas of Tartary that they are not merely priests, but are also 
the painters, poets, sculptors, architects, and physicians of the 
land;'^" and de Milloue states that, when the first Buddhist mis- 
sionaries arrived in Japan, they carried with them many indus- 
tries previously unknown in that country, which were necessary 
to their worship. They made rich sacerdotal cloths, sacred ves. 
sels of pottery- ware or bronze, gilded idols and luxurious tem- 
ples ; and, finally, the priests advanced as sculptors, as chiselers, 
as gilders, as painters, as weavers, as potters, as founders : a 
complete invasion of mechanics with shaven heads, of artists with 
lowered eyes, of labourers in frocks and chasubles.'*^* 

Elsewhere in North America nothing was known of the art of 
melting or casting metals. In cases in which gold or copper was 
used, the northern Indian simply took a stone and by physical 
force hammered the metal into the required shape.'^'' The Mexi- 
cans, however, to make jewelry, idols, and other objects of art, 
melted the metal in crucibles, and cast it in moulds made of clay 
or charcoal. °^^ 

The so-called " lost art " of casting parts of the same object 
of diflferent metals was known :*** thus fishes were modeled with 
alternate scales of gold and silver ; copper and other metals 
were gilded by a process which would have made the fortune of 
a goldsmith in Europe ; furnaces, perhaps of earthen-ware, and 
blow-pipes, are depicted on native paintings in connection with 
gold-working. This art of casting metals was the one which was 
held by them in the highest esteem."* Cortez admitted that in 
this the Mexican smiths far excelled those of the Spaniards."^' 

Their miracles in that art would not be believed if it were 
not for the fact that, in addition to the testimony of those who 
saw them, many of these curiosities were sent to Europe.'"*' The 
works of gold and silver sent as presents to Charles V, by the 
Conqueror Cortez, filled the goldsmiths of Europe with astonish- 
ment, who, as several writers of that period testify, declared that 
they were altogether inimitable."" 

Herrera, who says they could also enamel, commends the skill 
of the Mexican goldsmiths in making birds and animals with 
movable wings and limbs, in a most curious fashion. ("Hist. 
Gen.," dec. ii, lib. vii, cap. 15.) Sir John Maundevile, as usual, 



BUDDHISM. 573 

'" . . . With his hair on end 
At his own wonders," 
notices the « gret marvayle " of similar pieces of mechanism at 
the court of the grand Chane of. Cathay. (See his " Voiage and 
Travaile," chap, xx.)'"'' 

The Aztecs not only knew how to cast gold and silver, and 
how to make the casting take any shape that they desired, but 
they also worked all species of gems very dexterously ; and this 
was, more than all others, the particular art which rendered their 
name the most celebrated.'"^" 

M. Lenoir makes the following statement in regard to sculpt- 
ured vases found in Mexico : 

<' As to these vases, ornamented with fantastical figures and 
made of granite, of green or black basalt, of jade, or of glazed 
terra cotta, a great resemblance is noticeable between them and 
the vases of the Japanese made of jade, of soft stone, of rice 
paste, or of porcelain. My opinion has been confirmed by M. 
Barad^re who, on seeing in my cabinet an old Japanese vase 
of white jade, mistook it for a valuable vase which he had seen 
in the Museum of Mexico, the form and the details were so simi- 
lar. It is very remarkable to observe such a resemblance be- 
tween two of the works of art of nations so widely separated by 
the seas, and between which there seems to have never been any 
communication. In the collection of designs executed by M. 
Franck, of the objects contained in this same Mexican Museum, 
several of the jade vases have a great analogy, a resemblance al- 
most perfect, to some I possess which are of Japanese origin. 
He has also drawn a small figure, carefully worked from some 
hard substance, of which the head, the pose, and the costume are 
evidently Chinese. This, therefore, raises a new presumption 
that some ancient communication may have existed between Asia 
and America." '"" 

Had M. Lenoir been acquainted with all the proofs of a visit 
to America by Buddhist priests (priests of the same faith being 
^also the introducers into Japan of many of the arts of civiliza- 
tion), and with the fact that the traditions of Mexico uniformly 
attributed to these missionaries the knowledge which the natives 
possessed of the arts of casting the metals and of cutting gems, 
he might have omitted the statement that there seemed never to 
have been any communication between the two nations. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

EELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS 

The incongruity of the religious system of the Aztecs — The Toltecs — Contentions 
between rival sects — Monasteries — The " Tlamacazqui " — The herb-eaters— 
Their asceticism — The monastery and nunnery attached to the chief temple of 
the city of Mexico — The duties of the devotees — Their clothing — The discipline 
— The differences in rank — Other ascetics — Probation of candidates — Vows not 
for life — Married priests — The monastery of the Totonacas — The pontiff of 
Mixteca — The title "Taysacaa " — Auricular confession — The practice of bear- 
ing a calabash — The dress of the priests — Continence — Prayers — Fasting — The 
early disciples of Sakya Muni — The Buddhist monasteries — Candidates for the 
priesthood — Education of children — Food and clothing — Penances — Nunneries 
— Life of the inmates — Punishment of incontinence — Time for meals — Cloth- 
ing of idols — Absence of vital points of Christian doctrine — Marriage of the 
priests — Vegetarianism — Failure of the Buddhists to strictly comply with the 
tenets of their religion — The eating of flesh — A curious anomaly in Buddha's 
teachings — Religious terms — The name Sakya — Its occurrence in Mexico — 
Otosis — Gautama — Guatemala — Quauhtemo-tzin — Tlama and lama — Teotl 
and Deva — Refutation of a negative argument — Religious tenets — The road 
to the abode of the dead — The divisions of the abode of the dead — Transmi- 
gration — Yearly feast for the souls of the dead — The tablet at Palenque — 
The lion-headed couch — Seated figures — An image of Quetzalcoatl — The story 
of Camaxtli — Preservation of his blonde hair. 

In contemplating the religious system of the Aztecs, one is 
struck with its apparent incongruity, as if some portion of it had 
emanated from a comparatively refined people, open to gentle in- 
fluences, while the rest breathes a spirit of unmitigated ferocity. 
It naturally suggests the idea of two distinct sources, and author- 
izes the belief that the Aztecs had inherited from their predeces- 
sors a milder faith, on which was afterward engrafted their own 
mythology.'"^* Tradition imparts to the Toltecs a higher civiliza- 
tion than that found among the Aztecs,*'* who had degenerated 
with the growth of the warlike spirit,"'' and who destroyed much 
of the culture of their predecessors ; *^* and it is plain that much 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 575 

of tlie religion of this earlier nation may now be unknown — their 
temples and altars having been appropriated for the worship of 
a different religion, modificative or subversive of the first. "^* It 
seems to have been an ineradicable Toltec tendency to indulge 
in religious controversy, to the prejudice of their national pros- 
perity,*" and these struggles over religious creeds would naturally 
result in numerous and radical changes in the current belief. 
Tradition states that in early days there was bitter contention 
between the rival sects of Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, and that 
with the growth of the Aztec influence the bloody rites of the 
latter sect had prevailed, under the auspices of the god Huitzilo- 
pochtli ; and the worship of the gentler Quetzalcoatl, though still 
observed in many provinces and many temples, had with its 
priests been forced to occupy a secondary position.*^ Still, even 
at the time of the Spanish conquest, there were many traces re- 
maining in the land of the pure and gentle faith taught by Wixi- 
pecocha and Quetzalcoatl. In nothing was the influence of these 
teachings more apparent than in the monasteries or colleges for 
the two sexes, which existed throughout the land, and the first 
of which were said to have been founded by Quetzalcoatl.®"^' 
In these the doctrines of the prophet were preserved, and his dev- 
otees occupied themselves in the study of science, and in prayer 
to heaven for the abolition of the bloody sacrifices, and the 
scourges which afflicted the land."® 

The Toltec civilization, intrenched behind the mountains of 
Zapotecapan and of Mixtecapan, was much better preserved 
from contact with barbarism than in the provinces near Ana- 
huac. The people of these states were, therefore, given the special 
designation of the children of Quetzalcoatl.®'' Still, even in the 
city of Mexico and its neighbourhood, some knowledge of the 
earlier faith was preserved, although mixed with the savage rites 
by which it had been nearly superseded. 

To each temple was attached a monastery, the members of 
which enjoyed privileges similar to those of our canons. The 
Tlamacazqui, " deacons " or " ministers," and the Quaquacuiltin, 
" herb-eaters," were those who dedicated themselves to the service 
of the gods for life. They led a very ascetic life ; continence was 
imposed upon them, and they mortified the flesh by deeds of pen- 
ance, in imitation of Quetzalcoatl, who was their patron deity. 

Some dedicated their whole lives to the service of the gods ; 



576 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

others vowed themselves to perpetual continence. All were poorly 
clothed, wore their hair long, lived upon coarse and scanty fare, 
and did all kinds of work. At midnight they arose and went 
to the bath ; after washing, they drew blood from their bodies 
with spines of the maguey-plant ; then they watched, and chanted 
praises of the gods, until two in the morning. Notwithstanding 
this austerity, however, these monks could betake themselves 
alone to the woods, or wander through the mountains and des- 
erts, there in solitude to spend the time in several ways.'^' 

The monastery and nunnery attached to the chief temple of 
the city of Mexico are thus described by Purchas : ^"* " "Within 
this great Circuit of the principall Temple were two houses, like 
Cloisters, the one opposite to the other, one of men, the other of 
women. In that of women they were Virgins only, of twelve or 
thirteen yeares of age, which they called the Maids of Penance ; 
they were as many as the men, and liued chastely, and regularly, 
as Virgins dedicated to the seruice of their God. Their charge 
was to sweepe and make cleane the Temple, and euery morning 
to prepare meate for the Idoll and his Ministers of the Almes 
the Religious gathered. . . . These Virgins had their haire cut, 
and then let them grow for a certaine time ; they rose at mid- 
night to the Idol's Mattins, which they dayly celebrated, perform- 
ing the same exercises which the Religious did. They had their 
Abbesses. . . . Their ordinary habite was all white. . . . They 
did their penance at midnight. ... If any were found dis- 
honest, they were put to death without remission, saying, shee 
had polluted the house of their God. . . . This profession con- 
tinued a yeare, during which time their fathers and themselues 
had made a vow to serue the Idol in this manner, and from thence 
they went to be married. 

" The other Cloyster or Monasterie was of yong-men, of eigh- 
teene or twenty yeares of age, which they called Religious. 
Their crownes were shauen, as the Friers in these parts ; their 
haire a little longer, which fell to the middest of their eare, except 
on the hinder part of the head, where they let it grow to their 
shoulders, and tied it vp in trusses. These serued in the Tem- 
ple^ liued poorely and chastely, and (as the Leuites) ministered 
to the Priests, Incense, Lights, and Garments, swept and made 
cleane the holy Place, bringing wood for a continuall fire, to the 
harth of their God, which was like a Lampe that still burned be- 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 577 

fore the Altar of their Idoll. Beside these, there were other 
little boyes that serued for manual vses, as to decke the Temple 
with Boughs, Roses, and Reedes, giue the Priests water to wash, 
Rasours to sacrifice, and to goe with such as begged Almes, to 
Carrie it. All these had their superiours, who had the governe- 
ment ouer them, and when they came in publike, where women 
were, they carried their eyes to the ground, not daring to beholde 
. them. They had linnen garments, and went into the Citie f oure 
or sixe together, to aske almes in all quarters, and if they gote 
none, it was lawfull for them to goe into the Cornefields, and 
gather that which they needed, none daring to contradict them. 
There might not aboue fiftie liue in this penance ; they rose at 
midnight and sounded the Trumpets, to awake the people. Euery 
one watched by turne, least the fire before the Altar should die. 
They gave the censer with which the Priest at midnight incensed 
the Idoll, and also in the morning, at noone, and at night. They 
were very subiect and obedient to their Superiours. . . . This 
austeritie continued a yeare. The priests . . . drunke no wine, 
and slept little. . . . Gomara speaketh of others . . . which 
lined in those Cloysters . . . euery one abode there as long as 
they had vowed, and after vsed their libertie." 

Of the several religious orders, the most renowned for its 
sanctity was the Tlamacazcayotl, which was consecrated to the 
service of Quetzalcoatl. The superior of this order, who was 
named after the god, never deigned to issue from his seclusion 
except to confer with the king. Its members, called Tlamacaz- 
qui, led a very ascetic life, living on coarse fare, dressing in sim- 
ple black robes, and performing all manner of hard work. They 
bathed at midnight, and kept watch until an hour or two before 
dawn, singing hymns to Quetzalcoatl ; on occasions, some of them 
would retire into the desert, to lead a life of prayer and penance 
in solitude.^'^ 

Acosta makes mention of certain ascetics who dedicated 
themselves for a year to the most austere life ; they assisted the 
priests at the hours of incensing, and drew much blood from their 
bodies in sacrifice. They dressed in white robes, and lived by 
begging. ("Hist de las Ynd.," pp. 341, 343.) 

The only food of the candidate for the priesthood, during the 
year of probation, was herbs, wild honey, and roasted maize ; "' 
his life was passed in silence and retirement, and the monotony 
SI 



5Y8 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

of his existence was only relieved by waiting on the priests, tak- 
ing care of the altars, sweeping the temple, and gathering wood 
for the fires. When four years after his admission to the priest- 
hood had elapsed, during which time he seems to have served a 
sort of apprenticeship, he was permitted to marry, if he saw fit, 
and at the same time to perform his priestly functions. If he 
did not marry, he entered one of the monasteries, which were de- 
pendent on the temples, and, while performing his regular duties, . 
increased the austerity of his life. If one of them violated his 
vow of chastity, he was bastinadoed to death. 

In spite of the austerity of their retreat, the monks neverthe- 
less sometimes repaired alone to the woods, to wander in the 
mountains and deserts in a spirit of contemplation.'" 

The title of "Teopixqui," or sacred guardian, designates in- 
differently all the members of the priesthood.**" Some of the 
number are married, and live an ordinary life in the world, with- 
out retiring therefrom except when engaged in the service of the 
temple. Others, following the example of Quetzalcoatl, who in- 
stituted ecclesiastic celibacy, bound themselves by a vow to 
continence, either perpetual or for a term ; these taking the 
title of " Tlamacazqui," which corresponds to that of deacon or 
priest. The conduct of all these men, consecrated to the altars 
of their gods, is extremely reserved and austere. Whenever they 
meet women, in the streets or in the houses, they bend their eyes 
upon the ground. They never drink any intoxicating liquor ; all 
their exterior announces mortification, gravity, and circumspec- 
tion, and their maintenance is imposed upon the people ; they 
are considered as beings superior to the rest of mortals, and as 
of a divine perfection, and a blind confidence is felt in the truth 
of everything that they say. 

Centeotl (the goddess of maize) is the principal divinity of 
the Totonacas ; they have among them a college of priests who 
are specially consecrated to her. Their life is passed in a suc- 
cession of austerities, analogous to those of the East Indian an- 
chorites ; but they do not admit into their monastery any others 
than aged priests, more than sixty years old, of good habits and 
especially of an irreproachable continence. The number of 
these priests is fixed, and a new member can not be admitted 
except at the death of one of the community. They give them- 
selves constantly to works of penitence and mortification, pray- 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 679 

ing to the goddess and the other gods for the prosperity of the 
people, and supplicating them to put an end to human sacri- 
fices. They never go forth into the world, and never speak to 
any one, except for the purpose of giving advice as to the con- 
duct of those who come to consult them upon the subject. On 
such an occasion they sit upon a bench, and, with eyes humbly 
lowered, they listen to that which is said to them, and reply with 
kindness to all that is asked of them, consoling the afflicted, and 
resolving the difficulties which are proposed to them. All the 
world has so great consideration for them, that the highest and 
most dignified pontiffs, and even the king himself, resort to them 
for counsel as if to living oracles. 

Except for the hours passed in prayer and contemplation, they 
occupy their time in drawing up and writing out the annals of 
the country, and in composing sermons, which the high-priest 
finally reads in public.'"" (Torquemada, " Monarq. Ind.," lib. 
viii, cap. 5, and lib. ix, cap. 8.) 

They dressed in skins and ate no meat.^^' (Las Casas, " Hist. 
Apologetica," MS., cap. cxxxii.) 

The kingdom of Tilantongo, which comprehends Upper Mix- 
teca, is governed spiritually by the high-priest of Achiuhtla, who 
has the title of " Taysacaa," and whose power equals, if it does 
not exceed, that of the sovereign. The title is probably derived 
from tay, a man, and sacaa, pontiff. (" Yocab. of the Mixteca 
Language.") 

The supreme pontificate is preserved, to all appearance, in the 
royal family, and is transmitted in the male line ; but the "sacaas," 
or simple priests, may be chosen indifferently from among any of 
the free families. All, even to the successor of the pontiff, render 
a rigorous novitiate of a year, from which no one of them can be 
excused. Up to this moment they are required to have con- 
stantly lived in a state of perfect chastity, and he who has before 
this time known any woman is considered unworthy of the gods. 
Their food, during the novitiate, consists of herbs, of wild honey, 
and of roasted maize ; their life is austere, and they pass it in 
silence and " in retreat " ; their sole occupation being to serve the 
priests, to have the care of the altars, to sweep the sanctuary, 
and to provide the wood necessary for the sacrifices.^'^ 

Among the rites in use in Nicaragua was that of auricular 
confession. It was not an ordinary priest who was charged with 



580 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the duty of hearing such confessions, but a venerable man, 
chosen usually from among the wisest and the most venerable of 
the country. At his death another was chosen in his place. He 
must be a celibate, of pure and austere life, living in his own 
house, where he listened to those who came to him. This office 
was much esteemed, and, as a mark of the office, he carried a cala- 
bash suspended from his neck. Those who had committed any 
grave fault approached him with humility, and remained stand- 
ing in bis presence, confessing their sins to him, persuaded that 
after this avowal their conscience should be entirely eased. The 
venerable man guarded their secret scrupulously, and imposed a 
penance for the profit of the temple, such as the sweeping of it, or 
the bringing of wood for its use, and finally dismissed them, say- 
ing, " Go and sin no more." ^^* 

The ordinary dress of the Mexican priests differed little from 
that of other citizens ; the only distinctive feature being a black 
cotton mantle, which they wore in the manner of a veil thrown 
back upon the head. Those, however, who professed a more 
austere life, such as the Quaquaquiltin and Tlamacazqui before 
mentioned, wore long black I'obes ; many among them never cut 
their hair, but allowed it to grow as long as it would ; it was 
twisted with thick cotton cords, and bedaubed with unctuous 
matter, the whole forming a weighty mass, as inconvenient to 
carry as it was disgusting to look at. The high-priest usually 
wore, as a badge of his rank, a kind of fringe which hung down 
over his breast, called Xicolli ; on feast days he was clothed in 
a long robe, over which he wore a sort of chasuble, or cope, 
which varied in colour, shape, and ornamentation, according 
to the sacrifices he made and the divinity to which he offered 
them.^'»- 

The usual dress of the Zapotec priests was a full white robe, 
with openings to pass the arms through, but no sleeves ; this 
was girt at the waist with a coloured cord. During the ceremony 
of sacrifice, and on feast days, the Wiyatao wore, over all, a 
kind of tunic with full sleeves, adorned with tassels, and em- 
broidered in various colours with representations of birds and 
animals. On his head he wore a miter of feather-work, orna- 
mented with a very rich crown of gold ; his neck, arms, and 
wrists were laden with costly necklaces and bracelets ; upon his 
feet were golden sandals, bound to his legs with cords of gold 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AXD BELIEFS. 581 

and bright-coloured thread. The Toltec sacerdotal system so 
closely resembled the Mexican that it needs no further descrip- 
tion in this volume. Their priests wore a long black robe reach- 
ing to the ground ; their heads were covered with a hood, and 
their hair fell down over their shoulders and was braided. They 
rarely put sandals on their feet, except when about to start on 
a long journey. The common Totonac priests wore long black 
cotton robes with hoods ; their hair was braided like that of 
the other common priests of Mexico, and was anointed with the 
blood of human sacrifices. The common priests of Michoacan 
wore their hair loose and disheveled ; a leathern band encircled 
their foreheads, their robes were white, embroidered with black, 
and in their hands they carried feather fans. In Puebla they 
also wore white robes, with sleeves, and fringed on the edges. 
The papas, or sacrificing priests of Tlascala, allowed their hair 
to grow long, and anointed it with the blood of their victims.'" 
The pontiff at Mictlan, in Salvador, who stood on nearly the 
same level as the king, bore the title of Teoti, " divine," and 
was distinguished by a long blue robe, a diadem, and a baton 
like an episcopal cross ; on solemn occasions he substituted a 
miter of beautiful feathers for the diadem.^"- 

Continence was strictly imposed on the Zapotec priests,'*^ 
but in Yucatan,^^* as well as in Mexico, many of the priests were 
married. 

Their prayers were standard compositions, learned by rote at 
school ; while reciting them they assumed a squatting posture, 
usually with the face toward the east ; on occasions of great 
solemnity they prostrated themselves.^^^ 

Fasting was observed as an atonement for sin, as well as a 
preparation for solemn festivals. An ordinary fast consisted in 
abstaining from meat for a period of from one to ten days, and 
taking but one meal a day, at noon ; at no other hour might so 
much as a drop of water be touched.^''* The female recluses also 
made it a practice to fast strictly, eating but once a day, and 
never before noon, and taking but a meager collation after 
noon."' 

All the Tlamacazqui were required to sleep in their monas- 
tery ; they occupied four hours in the morning in sweeping and 
cleaning, and they were all bound by vows to live chastely, to 
be temperate and truthful, to live devoutly, and to fear God.^'" 



582 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

To one at all familiar with the accounts of the life of Buddhist 
ascetics in the different countries of Asia, the foregoing relation 
of the duties and practices of the priests and nuns of Mexico will 
recall many analogies between the beliefs and customs of the two 
regions of the world ; and in fact much of the account of the 
Mexican ascetics might with equal truth be applied to their breth- 
ren in Asia, and with only a few changes might be thought to be 
the relation of some Asiatic traveler. 

The early disciples of Sakya Muni are generally represented as 
wandering about with their royal master ; others, in consequence 
of his frequent exhortations to lead a solitary life, are said to 
have retired to the forests and woods which surround the settle- 
ments, or to have lived in solitary and forsaken houses, which 
they only left at certain periods in order to betake themselves to 
Sakya Muni and listen to his words.^^^' Monasteries were almost 
immediately established, however. 

The tenets of Buddhism require a renunciation of the world, 
and the observance of austerities to overcome evil passions, and 
fit its disciples for future happiness. Avow of celibacy is taken, 
and the priests dwell together, for mutual assistance in attaining 
perfection by worshiping Buddha and calling upon his name. 
They shave the entire head as a token of purity, but not the 
whole body, as the ancient Egyptian priests did ; they profess to 
eat no animal food, wear no skin or woolen garments, and get 
their living by begging, by the alms of worshipers, and the cul- 
tivation of the grounds of the temple."" 

The bonzes are taken young into the service ; and, if there 
are no volunteers, young boys are bought ; their heads are then 
shaven ; they wear a yellow dress ; and commence the recitation 
of short prayers, while at the same time they perform the duties 
of scullions and menial servants. Finally they are ordained."'' 

In Arrakan, candidates for the priesthood are received with- 
out any regard to their country, caste, or previous religion. If 
the age of the postulant does not exceed fifteen years, he is 
appointed to the performance of menial duties, and gradually 
instructed about the duties he will afterward be required to 
attend to, until he arrives at twenty years of age, the period 
appointed for ordination. It is not unusual for young men to 
enter the order for a limited period, that they may acquire merit, 
or expiate some crime. The children of the laity are educated 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AXD BELIEFS. 583 

at the monasteries, no distinction being made between the rich and 
the poor ; and no remuneration is received by the priests beyond 
their usual allowance of alms. Some of the boys are allowed to 
go home to their meals, but they are obliged to sleep in the 
monastery, as the lessons they have learnt during the day are 
repeated in the evening, or at daybreak on the following morn- 
ing.'"*- In Mexico, also, the children are educated by the 
priests, and are allowed to go home to their meals, but required 
to sleep in the establishment. ""• 

The priests of Thibet are permitted to eat treacle, to cook for 
themselves in time of famine, to cook in ten kinds of places, to 
eat meat under certain restrictions, and to accept gifts from the 
laity. They are to wear not more than three pieces of cloth, of 
a red colour, to wear cotton garments when bathing, to be clean 
in their dress and in their bedding, and never to go naked. '*^' 

They do nothing but keep the vigils. There are convents 
containing from fifty to one hundred, whose sole occupation 
consists in reading mass and observing vigils."^"" 

The principal exercises of penance appear to be sweeping the 
court-yard, and sprinkling sand under the bo-tree, or near the 
dagobas.'^'^- 

In the commencement of Buddhism there was an order of fe- 
male recluses,'*^ and there still are a number of nunneries, but 
they are not so numerous as the monasteries, and the inmates are 
comparatively few. The rules are nearly the same, adapted to 
the peculiarities of the sex."'^'- The novice is not admitted to 
full orders till she is sixteen, though previous to this she adopts 
the garb of the sisterhood ; the only difference consists in the 
front part of the head being shaved, and the hair plaited in 
a queue, while the nuns shave the whole. . . . The Chinese 
nun ... is required to live a life of devotion and mortification, 
to eat only vegetables, to care nothing for the world, and to think 
only of her eternal canonization, keeping herself busy with the 
services of the temple. "Daily exercises are to be conducted by 
her ; the furniture of the small sanctuary, that forms a part of the 
convent, must be looked after and kept clean and orderly ; those 
women or men who come to worship at the altars, and seek guid- 
ance and comfort, must be cared for and assisted. "When there 
is leisure, the sick and poor are to be visited ; and all who have 
placed themselves under her special directions, and spiritual in- 



584 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

struction, have a strong claim upon her regard. That she may 
live the life of seclusion and self-denial, she must vow perpetual 
virginity." ''^" 

If a monk and a nun happen to succumb to the temptations 
of the flesh, the one is expelled from the convent, sent back 
ignominiously to her family, and dishonoured for life ; the other 
is driven out of the order, branded upon the forehead with a red- 
hot iron, and exiled to the mountains, to live with the wild beasts 
for several years, in a temperature so frigid as to cool the pas- 
sions. But if neither of the two culprits has been fully admitted 
to the order, they are permitted to repair their fault by marriage. 
In case of refusal, the monk is publicly bastinadoed, and is sent 
away from the place which he has scandalized.^^' 

What the Buddhists call time in reference to meals is thus ex- 
plained : The time of the gods is the early morning, the hour 
chosen by the gods to take their repast. The time of the law is 
noon, the hour selected by the Buddhas, past, present, and to come, 
for their refection. The time of brutes is evening, when animals 
feed. The time of the genii is night, during which good and evil 
spirits eat. Thus all meals taken after midday are unseasonable 
for ecclesiastics, and all who observe the precepts rigorously 
abstain from such.*^* Those, however, who are sick, observe no 
such distinction, but eat when they please.'^' 

In addition to the analogies which may be observed in the 
preceding accounts, it should be observed that the most scrupu- 
lous modesty is observed in the invention and the execution of 
the Mexican idols, as well as in the arrangement of their drape- 
ries. The care in this respect gives them a great resemblance to 
the paintings of the gods and goddesses of India, who are repre- 
sented with almost precisely the same styles of head-dresses and 
the same vestments as those of the Mexican divinities.'"' 

Buddhism does not sanction shocking rites or Bacchanalian 
orgies, like the other idolatrous systems of Asia. Nor have we 
to complain of indecency in its representations of idol gods ; 
they may be hideous, but they are never repulsive to the feelings 
of modesty.^^* 

We add, with Mr. Wilson, that the obligation of the priests 
of being always covered furnishes to archfeology a character of 
the fii'st importance, by which to determine the authenticity of 
statues or sculptured scenes, as to which there is doubt whether 



EELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 585 

they should be considered Buddhistic or not. The scenes in 
which the religious personages are clothed pertain, very prob- 
ably, to Buddhism ; but this can not be said of those in which 
they are nude."* 

Many of the facts which have been mentioned recall Roman 
Catholicism as strongly as they do Buddhism, and may well have 
been considered by the first Catholic missionaries as furnishing 
strong confirmation of the belief that America had, in the early 
centuries of the Christian era, been visited by a traveler of their 
own faith. 

These are all points, however, in which, as has already been 
explained, Roman Catholicism and Buddhism strongly resemble 
each other. That the missionary who exerted so great an influ- 
ence on their customs and beliefs could not have been of the Ca- 
tholic Church is shown by the entire absence of any reference to 
the Christian Sabbath ; by the lack of any mention of the Virgin 
Mary ; by the fact that the adoration of the cross was not car- 
ried to the extent which would have been taught by a Catholic 
priest ; by the failure of all reference to a Trinity, or to the name 
of the Saviour ; and by the fact that the ascetics were allowed to 
take their vows for a limited length of time, instead of for life. 

When my attention was first called to the subject, it seemed 
to me that the permission to marry, enjoyed by the Mexican 
priests, and the fact that although some of them were called 
" herb-eaters," nevertheless the greater part of them also ate " 
flesh, militated against the belief that they were the represen- 
tatives of the Buddhist faith, which had been introduced into 
the country more than a thousand years before. I found, how- 
ever, on investigation, that even the Buddhists of Asia were not 
governed very strictly by the laws by which they professed to be 
guided. Even the prohibition of intoxicating liquors is but little 
regarded '^^ by the lamas of Mongolia.'" In Burmah the priests 
make their mantles of cloth of the finest quality,'*'*' instead of 
from the coarse material prescribed by Buddah ; and, in Ceylon, 
caste exists among the disciples of this religion, although directly 
contrary to the tenets of its founder. 

Although celibacy was enjoined on the priests of Buddah, it 
is by no means universal,'*"" and married priests are found in 
China, Japan,"" Nepal,"^ Thibet,'"* and Ceylon.'-**" 

Gautama's teachings present the curious anomaly that, al- 



586 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

though he absolutely forbade the taking of life, yet he nevertheless 
permitted his disciples to eat the flesh of animals which had been 
killed by others ; '"* and to this day his followers will not admit 
that by purchasing the flesh they make themselves partakers in 
the sin of killing. ^^' They, therefore, do not refuse any kind of 
food that is offered them, and whatever dies of itself they con- 
sider to be killed by God, and they therefore feel at liberty to 
eat it."'^ 

One of Buddah's disciples suggested to him that it would be 
well to issue an order that no priest be permitted to eat flesh of 
any kind. " There are others who observe this ordinance," said he, 
" and, as there are many persons who think it is wrong to eat 
flesh, the non-observance of this ordinance by the priests causes 
the * dharma ' to be spoken against." But Buddha replied, " I 
can not consent to the establishment of such an ordinance. 
The Buddhas are not like the blind, who require to be led by 
another ; they do not learn from others, or follow the example 
of others. The faithful give to the priests flesh, medicines, seats, 
and other things, and thereby acquire merit. Those who take 
life are in fault, but not the persons who eat the flesh ; my 
priests have permission to eat whatever food it is customary to 
eat in any place or country, so that it be done without the indul- 
gence of the appetite or evil desire. There are some who be- 
come rahats at the foot of a tree, and others in pansals ; some 
when they are clothed in what they have taken from a cemetery, 
and others when clothed with what they have received from the 
people ; some when abstaining from flesh, and others when eat- 
ing it. If one uniform law were enforced, it would be a hindrance 
in the way of those who are seeking nirvana ; but it is to re- 
veal this way that the ofiice of the Buddhas is assumed." "" 

Hence, although Buddhism teaches that man should view all 
animated beings as his brethren and relations, and not kill them, 
and although there is a proverb which says, " To eat flesh is 
equal to eating one's relations," ^^^* many of the Buddhist priests 
eat whatever is offered them in alms ; and the fact that Gautama 
Buddha himself died from indigestion, produced by eating pork, 
has been a circumstance too well known to be set aside by the 
more rigid of his disciples, who might otherwise have been ready 
to insist upon a dietetic discipline more extensive in its prohibi- 
tion.»»^^ 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 587 

It therefore appears that neither the marriage of the Mexican 
priests, nor the fact that they were permitted to eat meat, is any- 
proof that they were not the representatives of Buddhism. 

It would appear that if Buddhism were preached in Mexico, 
and if it had sufficient influence upon the people to produce any 
changes in their customs or beliefs, some traces of the name or 
names of its founder, of its chief religious terms, and of the 
images which were brought by the missionaries, should be found 
in the land. 

Although " Buddha " is the name by which the founder of 
this Asiatic religion is best known among us, this word is mere- 
ly an epithet, meaning " the Enlightened," and in Asia he is 
usually designated either by his patronymic, " Gautama," or 
by the name of his race, " Sakya " ; and it is these names which 
we might expect to find in Mexico. It has already been men- 
tioned that the high-priest of Mixteca bore the title of Tay- 
sacaa, or " the Man of Sakya " — Tay meaning "man," and sacaa 
having no meaning in the language, but being merely the term 
which was applied to a priest. We also find the term Zaca-tlan, 
or " Place of Sakya," applied to the state of Chiapas,*^' and Zaca- 
tepee, or " Mountain of Sakya," applied to one of the most beauti- 
ful departments of the Republic of Guatemala.®*^ 

It is true that other explanations are given of these names — 
the " Zaca " in the last two cases being supposed to be connected 
with Sacatl, the term applied to herbage or fodder for animals ; 
but it is well known that otosis, or the substitution of a familiar 
word for an archaic one of similar sound but wholly diverse 
meaning, is a very common occurrence and easily leads to myth- 
making. For example, there is a cave near Chattanooga which 
has the Cherokee name Nik-a-jak. This the white settlers have 
transfoi-med into Nigger Jack, and are prepared with a narrative 
of some runaway slave to explain the cognomen.*^^ 

So, too, the fruit of the Persea gratissima, known by the Mex- 
icans as the Ahuacatl,-"" after having its name changed to the 
" avocado pear," "''^ came to be known by sailors as the " alligator 
pear," '"' and the explanation that it is so called because of the 
fact that alligators are exceedingly fond of it is always ready. 

It is therefore evident that the fact that some kind of an ety- 
mology may be found for a name, in the language in which the 
term is used, is not conclusive proof that it may not be a foreign 



588 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

word, adopted into the language and possibly more or less 
changed, and we should not feel debarred from seeking the true 
meaning of the term in the language from which it was bor- 
rowed. 

In addition to the names Zacatlan and Zacatepec, already 
mentioned, we also find the towns of Sacapulas, Sacatecoluca, 
Saco, Zacapa, Zacapata, Zacatecas, Zacatula, and Zacoalco, nearly 
all these names being found in one small district upon the Pacific 
coast, near the boundary-line between Mexico and Guatemala, the 
exact district which Wixipecocha is said to have visited. The 
name Guatemala I believe to be from Gautama-tlan, " the Place 
of Gautama." Bancroft gives the following account of the futile 
attempts that have been made to find a meaning for the word in 
the language of the country : " The name Guatemala is, accord- 
ing to Fuentes y Guzman, derived from Coctecmalan, that is to 
say, I^alo de leche, milk-tree, commonly called Yerba mala, found 
in the neighbourhood of Antigua Guatemala. See also Juarros, 
'Guatemala,' ii, pp. 527, 528, In the Mexican tongue, if we 
may believe Vasquez, it was called Quauhtimalli, ' rotten tree.' 
(' Chronica de Guatemala,' p. 68.) Others derive it from TThatez- 
malha, signifying 'the hill which discharges water' ; and Juarros 
suggests that it may be from Juitemal, the first king of Guate- 
mala, by a corruption, as Almolonga from Atmulunga, and 
Zonzonate from Zezontlatl. The meaning of the word would 
then be ' the Kingdom of Juitemal.' " *^' 

It is scarcely necessary to say that no one of these derivations 
is satisfactory, and that they have merely been suggested in 
the absence of any other clew to the meaning of the word. 

In Michoacan we find a town called Huatamo, and in Jalisco 
one called Huazamala, both of which seem to preserve the term 
Gautama. The name seems to have survived as a personal 
designation up to the time of the Spanish conquest. After the 
death of Montezuma, the strongest candidate for the Mexican 
throne was the former high-priest Quauhtemo-tzin.''"^ The native 
authorities incline to the form " Quauhtemoc " ; but the Spanish 
generally add the " tzin," the " c " being elided, and the " Q " 
changed to " G," making the name Gautemotzin.^^^ Solis spells 
the word Guatimocin,^^ oxidi Diaz, Quauhtemoctzin}'^'^^ Prescott 
explains that the Aztec tzin was added to the names of sover- 
eigns and great lords as a mark of reverence.'"'" It therefore 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 589 

appears quite as probable that the name meant " the Great Gau- 
tama " as that it meant " the Eagle that Stoops." ''' 

The title " Tlamacazqui " of the Mexican priests has already- 
been mentioned. Of this the radical part is "Tlama," '"' a term 
which was also used alone as the appellation of a "medicine 
man " or physician. De Paravey called attention to the similar- 
ity of this word to the title of " lama," applied in Thibet to the 
Buddhist priests. It appertains by right to the superior priests 
only, but it has come to be regarded as a title which courtesy re- 
quires one to give to every Buddhist priest.^"' 

The Mexican language has no word with an initial " 1," and 
"tlama" is the form which a foreign word "lama" would inevi- 
tably take if adopted into the Aztec tongue. 

The religious establishments of the priesthood in India are 
called Viharasy- In Zapotecapan the supreme pontiff was 
called the Wiyatao,^''^ a term which may possibly be connected 
with it. Burgoa writes this word Hmjatoo, and translates it as 
" Great Sentinel." The Zapotec vocabulary translates it by the 
word " pope " or " priest." ^^ 'Wiyana was a term applied to 
pi'iests of a lower order."* 

The resemblance to " Deus " of the term " Teotl," applied by 
the Mexicans to the Divine Being, of whom they seem to have 
had some indistinct ideas, almost eradicated by the idolatry 
which they practiced, may be accounted for by the introduction, 
by the party of Buddhist priests from Coph^ne, of the Sanskrit 
" Deva," "^^ or some word very similar, from the Pali or other 
language closely connected with Sanskrit. 

I do not claim any very great value for these efforts to point 
out resemblances to names used by the Buddhists. There is no 
one of the cases as to which the explanations that are given may 
not be erroneous ; and yet it does not seem probable that so 
many resemblances can be wholly accidental. They have been 
mentioned, however, mainly in refutation of the negative argu- 
ment which might be urged if the names " Sakya," " Guatama," 
etc., were not found in the country, that therefore the religion 
of this sage could never have been so preached in the land as to 
have had any effect upon the belief of its people. 

Several of the religious tenets and practices of the Aztecs, 
which bear a striking analogy to those of the Buddhists, may be 
mentioned. 



590 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Among these may be named the belief as to the road to the 
abode of the dead. 

The officiating priests laid passports with the body, which 
were to serve for various points along the road. The first papers 
passed him by two mountains, which, like the symplegades, 
threatened to meet and crush him in their embrace. The second 
was a pass for the road guarded by a big snake ; the other 
papers took him by the green crocodile, Xochitonal, across 
eight deserts, and over eight hills. Then came the freezing 
itzehecaya, " wind of knives," which hurls stones and knives upon 
the traveler, who now more than ever finds the offerings of his 
friends of service. How the poor soul escaped this ordeal is not 
stated. Lastly he came to the broad river Chiconahuapan, " nine 
waters," which could be crossed only upon the back of a dog of 
reddish colour, which was killed for this f>urpose by thrusting an 
aiTow down its throat, and was burned with the corpse. Accord- 
ing to Gomara, the dog served for a guide to Mictlan ; but other 
authors state that it preceded its master, and, when he amved at 
the river, he found it on the opposite bank, waiting with a num- 
ber of others for their owners. As soon as the dog recognized its 
master, it swam over, and bore him safely across the rushing 
current.^" 

The Buddhists also speak of a mountain in Hades, near which 
passes the road which the souls of the dead must travel to reach 
the place of judgment, and of a river which must be crossed on 
the way."'" 

It is possible that the nine divisions of the abode of the 
dead, which are mentioned as having had an existence in 
the Aztec faith, were the eight places of torment of the Bud- 
dhists,"" added to the one land of darkness of their earlier 
faith. 

A belief in transmigration, so firmly rooted and widely prop- 
agated in Oriental countries, also existed in Mexico.'"^^ In both 
regions it was the practice to adorn the temples with hangings of 
paper, "*^ and in both a belief in enchantments and magic played 
a great role.*®^ It is possible that if the details as to the belief 
in lucky and unlucky days, and other superstitious notions as to 
good and evil fortune, could be brought to light, as it has ex- 
isted in the two regions of the world, a comparison would go far 
toward a settlement of the question as to whether these beliefs 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 591 

had a common origin, or had grown up in each region independ- 
ently of the other. 

One of the most striking analogies between the religious tenets 
of the two regions is that in Mixtecapan or Zapotecapan they are 
convinced that the souls of the dead wander about for a certain 
number of years, before they enter into the sojourn of the 
blessed, and that they return, once each year, to visit their fami- 
lies. This opinion has given rise to a singular feast, conse- 
crated to the reception of these returning spirits, which is held 
in the twelfth month of the Zapotec year, corresponding to the 
month of November.*®^ It is also a practice of the Buddhist 
priests to celebrate every year a great nocturnal feast of the 
dead, summoning the hungry ghosts by beat of gong and sound 
of bells."*" 




Fio. 18.— Sculptured tablet at Palenque. 



592 A^ INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

In the translation of d'Eicbthal's "Study," contained in 
Chapter VIII, an engraving is given (Fig. 2, page 128) of a bas- 
relief found at Palenque, which contains a figure seated in the 
characteristic attitude of Buddha, upon a lion-headed couch. 
Figs. 18 and 19 are reproductions of the same design as drawn 
by different artists. 




Fig. 19. — Another representation of the sculptured tablet at Palenque. 

I am indebted for both cuts, as well as for most of those 
which follow, to the courtesy of Mr. H. H. Bancroft, from whose 
great work, entitled " The Native Races of the Pacific States," 
they are borrowed. 

It will be seen that while the several artists have differed 
somewhat as to a number of the details, the general resemblance 
to the usual Asiatic representations of Buddha, as shown in Fig. 
1, page 128, and Fig. 9, page 135, is equally striking in all the 
copies. 



RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 



593 



The representations of Buddha by the Asiatics, when he is 
drawn as occupying the central part of a picture, present him, as 
a rule, as seated upon " the throne of lions " (in Sanskrit, Shn- 



m i i | iiii i i w| i ii i ii r ii i i N i|i| ii i iii i iii i i iii iiiiiii i iiiiiiiii n iiii i ii i iiii II' Hi i l l|ll H illll l lll | lll l li ll l ll lH Il i| III i l ni l ll l llllllll|llll ll['ll|l|iH[l[HlilllTI|HI|lllllir'|l" lllliiii|iriiH'i|![ii[""ii"ii| iiii']Ti iipiii *\ ii|i iimi|[iiiiiii 




Fio. 20. — Beau-relief in stucco at Palenque. 



hdsana ; in Thibetan, Sengti, or Senge chad ti, " the seat of eight 
lions "). The throne is so called from the eight lions which sup- 
38 



594 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



port it ; in the drawings, however, two lions only are seen in 
front.--^' Fig. 20 (see last page) represents a cross-legged figure 
found at Palenque, seated upon a similar couch,^'^ upheld by the 
heads and forelegs of two of the American animals which most 
nearly resemble the lion, and which are often called by that 
name. 

Above the doors of the "House of the Monks," at Uxmal, 
there are niches containing seated figures (see Fig. 21) which 




jiiiiiiiaii. 



iiililiiiiiililliiililiiiiliii 

Fig. 21. — Detail of facade of a building at Uxmal. 



bear a great resemblance to the statues of Buddha, which are 
placed in similar niches in the walls of many Asiatic temples. 

Taken by itself, the similarity might be considered as acci- 
dental ; but when consideration is given to the nature of the 
building in which the American figure is found, and to its won- 
dei'ful resemblance to the religious structures erected by the 
Buddhists of Asia, much weight is added to the assumption that 
both figures are the product of the same religious belief. 

If these resemblances are accidental, why is it that the ac- 
cident occurs nowhere in the world except in the region de- 
scribed by Hwui Shan ? 



EELIGIOUS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS. 



595 



Perhaps the most remarkable similarity to the Asiatic images 
of Buddha which is found in any Mexican object is, however, 
exhibited in a small image now contained in the museum of the 
Ethnographical Society of Paris, and said to be a representation 
of Quetzalcoatl. 




Fig. 22. — A Mexican image, said to represent Quetzalcoatl. 



Fig. 22, which (as well as the cut of the elephant-mound in 
the following chapter) is copied by permission of Messrs G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, from the translation published by them of the 
Marquis de Nadaillac's " Pre-Historic America," shows the com- 
plete identity of this image with those which are found in Asia. 

The Chinese character for Buddha is ■^ Fo, which consists 
of the Chinese representation of a "bow," ^, kung, and four 
nearly vertical lines. On each side of the seated figure, of which 



596 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

an illustration is given on the last page, there may be seen a 
number of hieroglyphics ; and the one in the upper left-hand 
corner consists of an exact reproduction of the Chinese " bow " 
(except for the reversal — which may exist only in the engrav- 
ing, not in the original figure), together with four vertical lines. 
It certainly does not seem impossible that the Chinese character 
Fo, copied blindly by one generation of Indians after another, 
may, in the course of centuries, have degenerated to the form 
shown in this image ; and it is at least a surprising coincidence 
that a figure which so closely resembles the representations of 
the Asiatic Buddha should bear a hieroglyph so similar to the 
one by which he was designated by the Chinese. 

If any reliance can be placed upon the story in regard to 
Camaxtli, who is said to have been the father of Quetzalcoatl,''*' 
it may be considered as adding something to the proofs which 
have already been adduced of an early visit to Mexico by a party 
of men of the Caucasian race. 

This story is thus told by Bancroft : *^^ " It is stated that 
when the Mexicans were practically forced into a nominal ac- 
ceptance of Christianity, 'the people secretly hid the adored 
images, and while accepting baptism still retained the old wor- 
ship in secret.' Among the idols and relics saved from the 
general destruction were the ashes of Camaxtli, the chief god of 
the tribe, said by some to have been the brother of Tezcatlipoca, 
by others the father of Quetzalcoatl. They were jealously 
guarded by the chief Tecpanecatl Tecuhtli, of Tepeticpac, till 
1576, when, tired of the temporal injuries which were falling 
upon him, owing to their presence in his house, he turned to the 
Church and surrendered the relic, and died the same week, on 
Holy Thursday, while penitently lashing himself before the 
Madonna. On opening the envelope of the relic, a mass of 
blonde hair fell out, showing that tradition was true in describ- 
ing the god as a white man." (Camargo, " Hist. Tlax.," pp. 151- 
159, 178, 179.) 

Having thus called attention to many analogies between the 
religious belief and practices of the Aztecs, and those of the 
Asiatic Buddhists, the following chapter will be devoted to an 
examination of the similar analogies existing in the pyramids, 
temples, and other buildings, and in the arts and customs of the 
two regions of the world. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE PYRAMIDS, IDOLS, AND AETS OF MEXICO. 

Temples built upon truncated pyramids — Mounds antedating Aztec occupation — 
Speculations as to the date of their erection — The Place of the House of 
Flowers — The monuments of San Juan Teotihuacan — Their size — Their con- 
struction — Mexican " teocallis " — Their proportions — Resemblances to the 
pyramids of India — Pyramids found wherever Buddhism prevails — The tumu- 
lus or tope — Its occurrence at Nineveh, in China, and Ceylon — Resemblances 
noticed by several authors — The temple of Boro-Budor in Java — The palace 
at Palenque — Dome-shaped edifices — The dome at Chichen — The construc- 
tion of the pyramids — The layer of stone or brick — The layer of plaster 
— The false arch — Decorative paintings — The priests the artists — The orna- 
ment upon the breast — The name Chaacmol — Cornices — Friezes— Representa- 
tion of curved swords — An elephant's head as a head-dress — Other ornaments 
in shape of an elephant's trunk — The elephant the symbol of Buddha — The 
tapir — Remains of the elephant or mastodon in America — Their possible con- 
temporaneity with man — Pipes carved in the shape of elephants — Their dis- 
covery — An inscribed tablet — The elephant mound of Wisconsin — A Chippe- 
wa tradition — Ganesa — Teoyaomiqui — Their resemblance — The conception of 
Huitzilopochtli — The story of Cuaxolotl — Tezcatlipoca — The mirror held by 
him — Similar idols in Asia — The imprint of the hand — The cataclysms by 
which the human race has been destroyed — The cardinal points — Their con- 
nection with certain colours — The temples of Thibet — The palace of Quetzal- 
coatl — A small green stone buried with the dead — Sweeping the path before 
the monarch — The use of garments and dishes but once — The breech-cloth — 
Quilted armour — Suspension-bridges — Books — Marriage ceremonies and cus- 
toms — Tying the garments together — Postponement of the consummation of 
marriage — Polygamy — Children carried on the hip — Children's toys — The 
cakes used as food — A game — Practices of many Asiatic countries — Milk 
not used — Authors led to believe in a connection between Asiatic and Mexican 
civilization — Diiferences between the Mexicans and other American tribes — 
Erroneous criticism. 

"When the Spaniards first pushed their way into the Mexi- 
can country, they found in each Aztec settlement one or more 
temples or places for the worship of the natives' gods. The idols 



598 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and the buildings containing tliem were uniformly placed upon 
the summit of a truncated earthen pyramid. Some of these 
structures were of immense size, and the ruins of many are still 
to be found in Mexico, Central America, and Yucatan. Although 
some of the smaller mounds may have been built by the tribe 
then occupying the country, they were, if so, merely imitations 
of the larger and more perfect pyramids erected by some more 
civilized nation which had been displaced by the Aztecs. It is 
the uniform testimony of travelers that the most ancient archi- 
tecture is in the highest style, and shows " marvelous workman- 
ship," while the later additions are much inferior, and seem to 
be the woi'k of a people less advanced in culture and skill.'^ 

That the mounds of Mexico antedate Aztec occupation is 
proved by records that the Aztecs did not enter the valley until 
the close of the thirteenth century, and by investigations showing 
that the mounds contain skulls that are not Aztec, and that they 
contain specimens of the plastic art which could not have come 
from the hand of an Aztec ; '^-^ while the tradition, still existing 
among the natives in many places, also credits these monuments 
to an earlier race."' An old Indian, living near Uxmal, in 1586, 
told a traveler that, according to the native traditions, the struct- 
ures there found had been built nine hundred years, and that 
their builders had left the country nearly that long ago.^-^ The 
editor of the " Antiquites Mexicaines " thinks that the temples at 
Palenque " may antedate the beginning of the Christian era," '^^® 
and Brasseur de Bourbourg refers to them as " antediluvian," "' 
while the very name Palenque means " a thing that is decayed." "" 

There is therefore reason for believing that these pyramids 
may have been built for the worship of a gentler and purer relig- 
ion than that which was dominant in the country in the early 
part of the sixteenth century. Humboldt remarked that one of 
these ancient sacred structures bore the name of Xochicalco, 
meaning "the Place of the House of Flowers," and asked 
whether this name might not have been given it "because the 
Toltecs, like the Peruvians, offered nothing to the divinity but 
fruits, flowers, and incense." '^^^ 

The monuments of San Juan Teotihuacan, said to be, with 
the exception of Cholula, probably the most ancient remains 
on the Mexican soil, are thus described : "' " They were found 
by the Aztecs, according to their traditions, on their entrance 



MEXICAN PYRAMIDS. 599 

into the country, when Teotihnacan (the Habitation of the Gods), 
now a paltry village, was a flourishing city, the rival of Tula, 
the great Toltec capital. The two principal pyramids were 
dedicated to Tonatiuh, the Sun, and Meztli, the Moon. The 
former, which is considerably the larger, is six hundred and 
eighty-two feet long at the base, and one hundred and eighty 
feet high, dimensions not inferior to those of some of the kin- 
dred monuments of Egypt. They were divided into four stories, 
of which three are now discernible, while the vestiges of the 
intermediate gradations are nearly effaced. The interior is com- 
posed of clay mixed with pebbles, incrusted on the surface with 
light porous stone. Over this was a thick coating of stucco, re- 
sembling in its reddish colour that in the ruins of Palenque. Ac- 
cording to the traditions, the pyramids are hollow ; but hitherto the 
attempt to discover the cavity in that dedicated to the Sun has 
been unsuccessful. In the other an aperture has been found in the 
southern side at two thirds of the elevation. It is a narrow gal- 
lery, which, after penetrating several yards, terminates in two pits, 
or wells, the largest about fifteen feet deep, the sides faced with 
unbaked bricks ; but to what purpose devoted, nothing is left to 
show. It may have been to hold the ashes of some powerful chief, 
like the solitary apartment in the great Egyptian pyramid. That 
these monuments were dedicated to religious uses there is no doubt, 
and it would only be conformable to the practice of antiquity, in 
the Eastern Continent, that they should have served for tombs as 
well as temples. Distinct traces of the latter destination are said 
to be visible on the summit of the smaller pyramid, consisting of 
the remains of stone walls, showing a building of considerable 
size and strength. There are no remains on the top of the pyra- 
mid of the Sun. The summit of this larger mound is said to have 
been crowned by a temple. . . . Around the principal pyramids 
are a great number of smaller ones, rarely exceeding thirty feet 
in height." (Copied from Prescott.) 

The Mexican teooalUs were very numerous. There were sev- 
eral hundred in each of the cities, and the towns, villages, and 
districts had their share, many of them, doubtless, but humble 
edifices. They were masses of earth cased with bricks or stone, 
about one hundred feet square, and in their form resembled the 
pyramids of Egypt, except that they were truncated. The as- 
cent was by four or more stories, by a flight of steps turning at 



^ 



600 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the angles of the pyramids, so that one or more circuits had to 
be made before reaching the top, or, in other cases, the steps led 
directly to the summit ; the top was a broad area with one or 
two towers forty feet or more high/" The base was either 
circular or quadrangular ; the pyramids sometimes consisted of 
only a single story, but were usually of several, each smaller than 
that below it."^' None of them terminated in a point. They 
always had a platform of greater or less extent, which served, 
without doubt, as a foundation upon which to place the statues 
or the sacrificial altars of their divinities. '^^^ At the first view 
one is not only struck by their conical or pyramidical form, but 
also by the slight elevation of the edifices as compared with their 
extent, as well as by the solidity of their construction."^ The 
main teocalli of the city of Mexico, as well as others elsewhere, 
stood in the midst of a vast area, encompassed by a wall of stone 
and lime."* 

These pyramids have often been compared with those of 
Egypt ; but the resemblance is more in the name than in the ap- 
pearance, the material or style of construction, the proportions of 
the structure, or the purposes for which it was erected. The 
Egyptian pyramids were of stone ; the Mexican mainly of earth. 
The Egyptian pyramids were carried up to a point; the Mexican 
were always truncated. The Egyptian were nearly as high as the 
diameter of their base ; the Mexican were usually very much 
broader than their height. Stephens urges the following a'^di- 
tional facts in proof of their radical dissimilarity : ^^^' 

" The pyramids of Egypt are peculiar and uniform, and were 
invariably erected for the same uses and purposes, so far as those 
uses and purposes are known. They are all square at the base, 
with steps rising and diminishing until they come to a point. 
The nearest approach to this is at Copan ; but even at that 
place there is no entire pyramid standing alone and disconnected, 
nor one with four sides complete, but only two, or, at most, three 
sides, and intended to form part of other structures ; all the rest, 
without a single exception, were high elevations, with sides so 
broken that we could not make out their form, which, perhaps, 
were merely walled around, and had ranges of steps in front and 
rear as at Uxmal, or terraces or raised platforms of earth, at most 
of three or four ranges, not of any precise form, but never square, 
and with small ranges of steps in the center. Besides, the pyra- 



MEXICAN PYRAMIDS. 601 

mids of Egypt are known to have interior chambers, and, what- 
ever their other uses, to have been intended and used as sepul- 
chers. These, on the contrary, are of solid earth and stone. No 
interior chambers have ever been discovered, and probably none 
exist ; and the most radical difference of all is, the pyramids of 
Egypt are complete in themselves ; the structures of this country 
were erected only to serve as the foundations of buildings. 
There is no pyramid in Egypt with a palace or temple upon it ; 
there is no pyramidal structure in this country without, at least 
none from whose condition any judgment can be formed. ^--^ 

" But there is one further consideration, which must be con- 
clusive. . . . There is no doubt that originally every pyramid in 
Egypt was built with its sides perfectly smooth. The steps 
formed no part of the plan. It is in this state only that they 
ought to be considered, and in this state any possible resemblance 
between them and what are called the pyramids of America 
ceases." 

If the American pyramids do not resemble those of Egypt, 
have they any similarity to any found elsewhere, or do they 
stand alone in the world ? 

Mr. Squier has answered the question, though in a manner 
somewhat contrary to what seems his own predilection for the 
theory of an aboriginal civilization, by stating that " in India are 
found the almost exact counterparts of the religious structures of 
Central America ; analogies furnishing the strongest support of 
the hypothesis which places the origin of American semi-civiliza- 
tion in Southern Asia." '"^ Wherever the religion of Buddha pre- 
vails, temples of a pyramidal form, both with square and circular 
bases, are to be found, '*»^ in some instances rising to an elevation 
that has only one parallel among the works of man.'**' The ear- 
liest Buddhist temple was the tumulus (tope). Outside was a 
circle of rude stone monoliths, like those of Avebury, Stennis, 
Stonehenge, etc., and within this circle was the principal edifice, 
the tope, a gigantic hemisphere of brick or stone, and earth, con- 
taining a tiny little secret chamber in the center. Huge statues 
and sumptuous railings of stone and marble, with gateways at 
intervals, were erected around the tope.'"" Truncated earthen 
pyramids are found throughout Central and Eastern Asia. There 
is one near the ruins of Nineveh.'**^ They were erected in China 
in early days, as is shown by the character tan, J^,''^^^ which is 



602 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

defined as " an open altar on which to offer sacrifice, a high ter- 
race for -worship." In Ceylon, the principal dagobas (as these 
religious structures are sometimes called) are at Anuradhapura ; 
and though time has divested them of a part of their original 
majesty, they are yet most imposing in their appearance. The 
Abhayagiri was originally four hundred and five feet high, being 
only about fifty feet less than the highest of the pyramids of 
Egypt, or the dome of St. Peter's at Rome, and fifty feet higher 
than St. Paul's at London. Its elevation is not now more than 
two hundred and thirty feet. The wall around the platform 
upon which it is built extends to the distance of one mile and 
three quarters. The Jaitawanarama, completed a. d. 310, was 
originally three hundred and fifteen feet high, but is now reduced 
to two hundred and sixty-nine feet. It has been calculated that 
the contents of this erection are 456,071 cubic yards, and that a 
brick wall twelve feet high, two feet broad, and ninety-seven 
miles long might be built with the materials that yet remain. "^^ 

It will be seen that in size, proportions, materials, uses, and 
appearance, these Asiatic structures closely resemble those of 
Mexico and Central America. Von Tschudi mentions, with sur- 
prise, " the characteristic likeness which exists between the pa- 
godas of India and the teocallis of Mexico."*"* Hardy says 
upon the subject : 

" The ancient edifices of Chichen, in Central America, bear a 
striking resemblance to the topes of India. The shape of one of 
the domes, its apparent size, the small tower on the summit, the 
trees growing on the sides, the appearance of masonry here and 
there, the style of the ornaments, and the small doorway at the 
base, are so exactly similar to what I had seen at Anuradhapura, 
that when my eye first fell upon the engravings of these remark- 
able ruins, I supposed that they were presented in illustration of 
the dagobas of Ceylon." '"* 

The writer of an article in the "Edinburgh Review," for 
April, 1867, says : 

" The great temple of Palenque corresponds so exactly in its 
principal details to that of Boro-Budor, situated in the province 
of Kedu (in Java), that it is impossible to reasonably dispute the 
community of the origin and of the purpose of the two monu- 
ments." " 

It should be observed that these two writers had no theory 



MEXICAN PYRAMIDS. 



603 



to serve, and that they were probably unaware of any other 
reason for believing that there had been early communication 
of any kind between the two continents. In order that the won- 
derful resemblance last mentioned may be seen by the reader, 




Fig. 23. — The temple of Boro-Budor iu Java. 

Figs. 23 and 24 have been inserted : the first being a copy of 
the frontispiece of Volume II of Crawfurd's "History of the 
Indian Archipelago," illustrating the temple of Boro-Budor, in 




Fig. 24.— The "palace" or temple at Palenque, Yucatan. 



604: AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Java ; and the second being a plate of the so-called " palace " 
at Palenque, Yucatan, enlarged from an illustration found on 
page 394 of the second volume of the ninth edition of the " En- 
cyclopedia Britannica " — American reprint. 

If these engravings are compared with a representation of 
the pyramids of Egypt, the dissimilarity of the latter to the 
structures of Asia and America will be very apparent, and the 
close resemblance of these last to each other will be brought out 
by the contrast. 

Most of the Buddhist edifices in Asia are dome-shaped. 
Again we find the coincidence that, while most of the temples of 
Mexico were quadrangular,'"^^ those which were specially dedi- 
cated to Quetzalcoatl were completely circular, "without an 
angle anywhere," ^" and were surmounted by a dome."'' Chief 
among the temples of Cholula was the semi-spherical structure 
devoted to Quetzalcoatl, standing upon a quadrilateral mound 
nearly two hundred feet, ascended by one hundred and twenty 
steps, and with a larger base than any Old World pyramid."' A 
similar dome at Chichen is thus described by Norman : "" 

" This building stood upon a double foundation, as far as I 
could judge, although I was unable to satisfy myself complete- 
ly, owing to the fallen ruins, which once formed a part of its 
structure, but which now almost concealed its base from the view. 
I found, on the east side, broken steps, by which I ascended 
to a platform, built about thirty feet from the base, the sides of 
which measured each about one hundred and twenty-five feet. 
The walls were constructed of fine hewn stone, beautifully fin- 
ished at the top, and the angles, parts of which had fallen, were 
tastefully curved. In the center of this platform, or terrace, was 
a foundation woi*k, twelve feet high, and in ruins ; the four 
broken sides measuring about fifty feet each, upon which is built 
a square of a pyramidical form fifty feet high, divided off into 
rooms, but inaccessible, or nearly so, owing to the tottering con- 
dition of the walls. I could discover, however, that the inside 
walls were covered, and the wood that supported and connected 
the ceilings was in good preservation. In the center of this square 
is the Dome, a structure of beautiful proportions, though par- 
tially in ruins. It rests upon a finished foundation, the interior 
of which contains three conic structures, one within the other, a 
space of six feet intervening, each cone communicating with the 



MEXICAN PYRAMIDS. 605 

others by doorways, tbe inner one forming the shaft. At the 
height of about ten feet the cones are united by means of tran- 
soms of zaporte. Around these coues are evidences of spiral 
stairs, leading to the summit." 

The pyramids of Asia are either of brick,'**^ or else of earth, 
covered with a layer of stone or brick, the whole overlaid with a 
plaster or stucco, which, according to Hardy, is composed of 
"lime, cocoanut water, and the juice of the paragaha." '"'^ 

The pyramid upon which stood the temple of Mexico was 
composed of well-hammered earth, stones, and clay, covered with 
a layer of large square pieces of " tetzontli " (a species of stone 
or lava), all of equal size, hewn smooth, and joined with a fine 
cement, which scarcely left a mark to be seen ; it was, besides, 
covered with a polished coating of lime or gypsum.*^'" 

Nearly all the pyramids of which the material is described 
were similarly constructed,'^^^ among them one near San Andres 
Chachicomula,'-"* and one near Tehuantepec,'*^^ but some were 
partly built of the sun-dried brick of the country. One of the 
mounds of Cholula was known by the name Ixtenextl^^ or " Lime- 
faced" ; evidently derived from ixtli, "face," and tenextli, "lime." 
This " lime " was a native carbonate which was not burned, and 
which still gives a strong effervescence when treated -svith 
acids.*"' The stucco with which nearly or quite all the pyramids 
were originally covered is said to have been composed solely 
of this native carbonate of lime, mixed with water in which the 
bark of a certain tree had been steeped. (See Brasseur de Bour- 
bourg's "Relation des Choses de Yucatan, de Diego de Landa," 
p. 335.) '" This is nearly the same composition as that used in 
Asia. 

Another similarity is found in the fact that the stones of the 
ancient Buddhist temples of Java "overlap each other within, so 
as to present to the eye the appearance of the inverted steps of 
a stair." "^' This peculiarity is found in nearly all the ruins of 
Mexico, Central America, and Yucatan. The nations of Amer- 
ica were not acquainted with the principle of the arch, and the 
species of false arch above described is the nearest approach to it 
that they ever made. 

We are informed that in Asia the inner surface of the walls 
of Buddhist temples is whitewashed, or covered with a kind of 
plaster. This is then generally decorated with paintings rep- 



606 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS, 

resenting episodes taken from the life of the Buddhas, or imao-es 
of gods of dreadful countenance.^^^* The lamas are the only art- 
ists who contribute to the ornament and decoration of the tem- 
ples. The paintings are quite distinct from the taste and princi- 
ples of art as understood in Europe, the fantastical and the 
grotesque predominating inside and out, both in carvings and 
statuary.'^"' At Palenque, as well as elsewhere in the neighbour- 
ing region of America, the walls and roofs of the temples were 
covered with stucco,''*^^ and the excellence of this material, which 
was also employed for making bas-reliefs, is said to be difficult 
to describe, for neither sand nor powdered marble can be distin- 
guished in its composition, and, in addition to its hardness and its 
fineness, it is of a beautiful white colour.'''^® The paintings, bas- 
reliefs, and statues well come under the description of " fantas- 
tical and grotesque." 

Le Plongeon states that the ornament hanging from the breast 
of the American figure, shown in Fig. 2, page 128, is a badge of 
his rank ; that the same is seen at the breast of many other per- 
sonages in the American bas-reliefs and mural paintings, and 
that a similar mark of authority is yet in usage in Burmah.'^*'*' 
The name Chaacmol, mentioned by him, is as good a preservation 
of the epithet SdJcya Muni {I and n often being interchanged in 
American languages) as could be expected to have come down 
through the vicissitudes of fourteen centuries. 

Above one of the ruins at Mictlan there was a projecting cor- 
nice, ornamented with capricious sculptures, which formed a sort 
of diadem placed upon the summit of the edifice. This crown, 
which still existed in the times of Burgoa, who gives an incom- 
plete description of it, seems to resemble, as far as we can judge, 
those of certain temples of Hindostan.®** It may also be noticed 
that the frieze which surrounds one of the stories of the pyramid 
of Xochicalco presents a series of small human figures, seated in 
the Eastern manner, with the right hand crossed on the breast 
and the left resting on a curved sword, whose hilt reminds us of 
ancient swords ; a thing the more worthy of attention since no 
tribe descended from the Toltecs or Aztecs has made use of this 
kind of arms.^^* 

Stephens, in his " Incidents of Travel in Central America," 
etc.,''^" Humboldt, in his " Vues des Cordilleres," plate 15, figure 
4,'"" and the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in "Monuments 



MEXICAN PYRAMIDS. 



607 



Anciens du Mexique," figure 2, plate 13/" give an engraving 
of a bas-relief in stucco, on tlie west side of the palace at Pa- 
lenque. The resem- 
blance of the head-dress 
to an elephant's head and 
trunk is somewhat strik- 
ing.^" (See Fig. 25.) 

At Uxmal, in Yuca- 
tan, an ornament of the 
walls, in the shape of a 
curved projection, has 
been " supposed by more 
than one traveler to be 
modeled after the trunk 
of an elephant." ^" The 
trunk is yet visible on 
the east side, though the 
whole figure is much 
broken on the west 
side.'"* The elephant 
trunk reappears in the 
interior steps at Kabah, 
Yucatan,^®^ and again in 
the wall at Zayi, Yuca- 
tan.*®' The resemblance 
is hardly so close as to 
make it absolutely cer- 
tain that the ornaments 

were intended as representations of an elephant's trunk, although 
many seem to think that there can be no question on the subject. 
Waldeck says that the head-dress first mentioned " is evidently an 
elephant's head," and that the same figure is also found in other 
reliefs and among the hieroglyphical characters.'" He also men- 
tions another building as possessing "a small chancel containing 
two birds perched upon elegant scroll-work, in adoration before 
an elephant's head " ; "® and Le Plongeon states that the mas- 
todon's head forms a prominent feature in all the ornaments of 
the edifices of Yucatan.^"^" Lillie also claims that " the elephant 
is everywhere " "** in the drawings of the Abbe Brasseur de 
Bourbourg (I admit, however, that I am unable to find it), and 




Fig. 25. — The elephaut's-head head-di'ess. 



608 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 




Fig. 26. — Lillie's drawing 
of an clepliant's head, 
said to be sculptured 
at Palenque. 



he gives an engraving, of which Fig. 26 is a copy, as repre- 
senting a sculpture at Palenque."^^ This is a perfect elephant's 
head, and, if the drawing is correct, may be considered as settling 
the question of the existence of this orna- 
ment in the temples of America. He does 
not give his authority, however, and there 
seems a possibility that the original sculpt- 
ure may not settle the point so decisively. 
The question is one of interest, since any 
knowledge on the part of the Mexicans of 
even one species of animal peculiar to the 
old continent, and not found in America, 
would, if distinctly proved, furnish a con- 
vincing argument of a communication hav- 
ing taken place in former ages between the 
people of the two hemispheres.'"'^ It is of the greater interest, as 
the elephant is in Asia the usual symbol of Buddha,'"* and a 
Guatemalan tradition asserts that Votan, who was probably one 
of our party of Buddhist priests, created,*^' or brought with him,®*' 
the tapir — the nearest American representative of the elephant — 
which was therefore considered in Guatemala, as the elephant is in 
Siam and other Buddhist countries, as a sacred animal. 

If the sculptures of Yucatan are really intended for elephants' 
trunks, a possible explanation of their existence may, however, 
be found in the theory that some species of elephant or masto- 
don existed in America until a comparatively recent date, and 
has become extinct in what may be called modern times. Re- 
mains of the mastodon are occasionally disinterred in the Mexi- 
can Valley^""' (see Latrobe's "Rambler in Mexico," p. 145), and 
Professor Newberry, some years ago, made the following state- 
ments on the subject : "®* 

" We know that both these great monsters — the elephant and 
mastodon — continued to inhabit the interior of our continent long 
after the glaciers had retreated beyond the upper lakes, and 
when the minutest details of surface topography were the same 
as now. This is proved by the fact that we not infrequently 
find them embedded in peat, in marshes which are still marshes, 
where they have been mired and suffocated. It is even claimed 
that here, as on the European Continent, man was a contemporary 
of the mammoth, and that here, as there, he contributed largely 



MEXICAN PYEAMIDS. 



609 



to its final extinction. On this point, however, more and better 
evidence than any yet obtained is necessary, before we can con- 
sider the contemporaneity of man and the elephant in America 
as proven. The wanting proof may be obtained to-morrow, but 
to-day we are without it." 



a?gSS^!?r- 




FiG. 27.— Elephant-pipe, found in a field in loTca. 



Since the above "vvas written, the lacking evidence seems to 
have been obtained. There are in the 'possession of the Academy 




Fig. 28.— Elephant-pipe, found in a mound. 

of Natural Sciences of Davenport, Iowa, two carved stone 
pipes, of which representations are given in Figs. 27 and 28. 
39 



610 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

The first was found in Louisa County, Iowa, about the year 1870, 
by Mr. Peter Mare (now living in Kansas), while planting com 
on his farm."** The discovery of the second is thus described 
by the Rev. Ad. Bluraer, in a letter dated Geneseo, Illinois, 
March 27, 1880 :"^* 

"Having formerly resided in Louisa County, Iowa, ... I 
visited that place, during the first week of the present month, in 
company with Rev. J. Gass. . . . We visited several groups of 
mounds, . . . and finally determined to open those of a group 
situated two miles east of Grand View, and three miles south of 
the boundary of Muscatine County. . . . Our work was begun 
on the farm of Mr. P. Haas, S. W. i, N. E. i. Sec. 25, Twp. 
75, N., R. 3. . . . The first mound we opened, and the only one at 
the exploration of which I was present, proved to be a sacrificial 
or cremation mound. . . . An opening of five by ten feet was 
made. The surface was a layer of hard clay, about one and a 
half foot thick. Beneath this layer, which exhibited here and 
there the effects of fire, we found a layer of red burned clay, about 
as hard as a rather soft-burned brick. This layer was of an 
oval form, five feet in the shortest diameter, one foot thick in the 
center, and gradually diminishing to three inches at the circum- 
ference. Under this was a bed of ashes thirteen inches deep in 
the middle, and also gradually diminishing to the edges, where 
it terminated, with the burned clay above. ... In the midst of 
this bed of ashes, a few inches above the bottom, were found 
... a carved stone pipe, entire, and representing an elephant, 
which was first discovered by myself." 

The illustrations given upon the last page were copied by a 
photo-engraving process from photographs of the pipes in ques- 
tion. They seem to be unmistakable representations of an ele- 
phant or some closely allied quadruped, and their makers must 
have been acquainted with the animal. 

The Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences also have a 
tablet, found in a mound near their city, containing some thirty 
rude pictures of animals, most of which can be recognized, and 
among them there are two that seem intended for elephants."" 
It may be worthy of notice that in these drawings, in the pipes, 
and in the sculptures of Yucatan, the animal's head is uniformly 
represented without any trace of tusks. In that otherwise truth- 
ful representation of the mastodon, the elephant-mound of Wis- 



MEXICAN" IDOLS. 611 

consin (see Fig. 29), the artist has also totally omitted the tusks, 
and shortened the trunk to very moderate dimensions. Surely 




Fia. 29.— The " Elephant-Mound " of Wisconsin. 

not for want of space, for the whole animal has a length of over 
one hundred feet, and a proportionate height. There, therefore, 
seems some reason for believing that an animal much resem- 
bling the elephant, but destitute of tusks, existed in America up 
to a comparatively recent date. 

Schoolcraft mentions a Chippewa tradition which was nar- 
rated by Maidosegee, an aged chief of that tribe, regarding the 
former existence of an animal from whose skin the wind had 
blown the hair.**** When first found he was very small, but he 
began to shake himself, and at every shake he grew. His body 
became heavy and massy ; his legs thick and long, with big, 
clumsy ends, or feet. He still shook himself, and rose and 
swelled ; a long snout grew from his head, and two great, shin- 
ing teeth out of his mouth. His skin remained as it was, naked, 
and only a tuft of hair grew on his tail. He was enormous. " I 
should fill the earth," said be, " were I to exert my utmost 
power, and all there is on the earth would not satisfy me to 
eat." 

This may possibly be a genuine tradition of the compara- 
tively recent existence in America of some elephantine quad- 
ruped. 

Fig. 30 is a copy of the frontispiece of the second volume 
of Sir Thomas RafQes's " History of Java," *^" and represents the 
elephant god Bitara Gana, or Ganesa, worshiped in that island. 
Fig, 31 is a picture of one of the gods of the Mexicans, said to 
be Teoyaomiqui, copied from the plate given on page 513 of 
the fourth volume of Bancroft's " Native Races of the Pacific 



612 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



States." ^** A comparison of the two will show so many resem- 
blances that the conclusion hardly seems far-fetched that the lat- 




FiG. 30. — Bitara Gana, or Gan^sa. 

ter is merely a modification of the former, brought about by 
gradual changes, which have accumulated through many cent- 
uries. In both we see skulls and encircling serpents. The po- 



MEXICAN IDOLS. 



613 




Fig. 31.— An Aztec god— said to be Teoyaomiqui. 



614 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

sition of the four hands and feet is nearly the same in both, 
with an additional pair of hands appearing near the shoulders ; 
and the distorted head of the Mexican idol may possibly have 
been made by workmen who, knowing nothing of the existence 
of the elephant, or any other animal with a long proboscis, there- 
fore, by gradual changes, shortened up the trunk and split it, as 
shown in the protruding tongue of the engraving, and changed 
the tusks into the two projections at each side of the tongue. 
A god with four or six hands, as here shown, is an anomaly 
in Mexican and Central American mythology,'*" and its counter- 
part can be found only in Asia. 

•• There was a tradition current in Mexico of the miraculous 
conception of Huitzilopochtli, which closely resembles the Asiatic 
stories of the conception of Buddha, and which Clavigero relates 
as follows : ^'- " In the ancient city of Tulla lived a most devout 
woman, Coatlicue by name. Walking one day in the temple, as 
her custom was, she saw a little ball of feathers floating down 
from heaven, which, taking without thought, she put into her 
bosom. The walk being ended, however, she could not find the 
ball, and wondered much, all the more that soon after this she 
found herself pregnant." 

The Mexican story of Cantico, or Cuaxolotl, who, having sac- 
rificed after having eaten fried fish, was changed into a dog, as a 
punishment for not having kept fast until after sacrifice,'*"® also 
closely resembles an East Indian tale. 

Tezcatlipoca, one of the principal deities worshiped in Mexi- 
co,'**' was represented as holding in his hand a great circular 
mirror of gold, bordered, like a fan, with precious feathers, 
green, and azure, and yellow ; the eyes of the god were ever fixed 
on this, for therein he saw reflected all that was done in the 
world.^"* A similar story is told in Thibet, of Shinje, " the Lord 
of the Dead," " the King of the Law," who is said to possess a 
wonderful mirror which shows him all the good and bad actions 
of men.''^^* In Japan, also, the same tale is told by the Buddhists 
regarding a great judge, before whom the souls of the dead are 
tried, before whom stands a large mirror in which the actions of 
all men are imaged forth. ^®* 

Dr. Le Plongeon says that the tribes of Yucatan, and 
several of those that dwell in Hindostan, have in common 
the custom of printing the impress of the human hand, dipped 



MEXICAN ARTS. 615 

in a red-coloured liquid, on the walls of certain sacred edi- 
fices. ^^'" 

In Chapter IX have been given the remarks of von Humboldt 
upon the analogy which the Mexican mythology presents, in its 
fable regarding the system of the universe, of its periodic de- 
structions and regenerations, to the account contained in the 
sacred books of the Hindoos of the four ages, and of the pralai/as^ 
or cataclysms, which, at different epochs, have caused the de- 
struction of the human species. It will, therefore, be unneces- 
sary to repeat these legends here, although it may be stated that 
the traditions of the two countries so closely resemble each other 
that both speak of four ages, each terminating by a general 
catastrophe, and each catastrophe exactly the same in both. At 
least that is the doctrine of one of the Shastras. The race, it 
teaches, has been destroyed four times : first, by water ; second- 
ly, by winds ; thirdly, the earth swallowed them ; and, lastly, 
fire consumed them. (Sepp, " Heidenthum und Christenthum," 
i, p. 191.)'"» 

In Mexico,^^''^ as in China, the leading one of the four points 
of the compass was the south ; Gemelli and Sahagun both follow- 
ing exactly the same order in the enumeration of the quarters of 
the world : first, the south, then the east, and finally the north 
and the west ;"^ and one point, as to which there seems much 
reason for believing that the American custom was influenced by 
communication with some of the nations of Asia, is the employ- 
ment, in both regions of the world, of definite colours to symbol- 
ize the points of space.'^' 

Schlagintweit says that in Thibet the walls of the temples 
look toward the four quarters of heaven, and each side should be 
painted with a particular colour : the north side with green, the 
south side with yellow, the east side with white, and the west 
side with red ; but this rule was not strictly adhered to, as many 
temples were seen with all sides of the same colour, or simply 
whitewashed.'^^ If the Mexican traditions may be believed, the 
sacred palace of that mysterious Toltec priest-king, Quetzalcoatl, 
had four principal halls, facing the four cardinal points. . . . 
That on the east was called the Hall of Gold, because its walls 
were ornamented with plates of that metal, delicately chased 
and finished ; the apartment lying toward the west was named 
the Hall of Emeralds and Turquoises, and its walls were pro- 



616 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

fusely adorned with all kinds of precious stones ; the hall facing 
the south was decorated with plates of silver, and with brilliant 
coloured sea-shells, which were fitted together with great skill. 
The walls of the fourth hall, which was on the north, were red 
jasper, covered with carving, and ornamented with shells. 
Another of these palaces or temples, for it is not clear which they 
were, had also four principal halls decorated entirely with feather- 
work tapestry. In the eastern division the feathers were yellow; 
in the western they were blue, taken from a bird called Xiuh- 
tototl ; in the southern hall the feathei's were white; and in that 
on the north they were red.'*° 

The colours used to symbolize the points of the compass varied 
among different races. In Java the divisions of the horizon and 
the corresponding colours were named in the following order : 
first, white and the east ; second, red and the south ; third, yel- 
low and the west ; fourth, black and the north; and fifth, mixed 
colours and the focus or center."^ Among the Mayas of Yucatan 
the east was distinguished by yellow, the south by red, the west 
by black, and the north by white.^"* In Mexico, according to 
the declaration of Geraelli, the hieroglyph of the south is a hare 
upon a blue field ; that of the east, a reed upon a red field ; that 
of the north, a lance upon a yellow field ; and that of the Avest, a 
house upon a green field.'^'' The order of the first three colours 
is the same as that of the colours mentioned by Hwui Shan — blue, 
red, and yellow. It is true that a difference appears in the colour 
appropriated to the west, but it is not at all improbable that 
Gemelli was mistaken as to that point, as the Mexicans desig- 
nated blue and green by the same term, and had no way of dis- 
tinguishing between the two colours ; it, therefore, seems not im- 
probable that the hieroglyph of the west was painted upon a 
field which the Mexicans intended for white, but which, from 
some cause, was of so dingy a colour that Gemelli mistook it for 
light green. The colour black, of which we are not able, other- 
wise than as a matter of conjecture, to establish the employment 
among the Mexicans as symbolizing any point of space, plays as 
important a part as any of the other colours in the account of 
Fu-sang, and appears to correspond to the central region. Here 
there are traces of archaism, easy to explain among a people 
whose civilization goes back to a much earlier date than that of 
other American races. "^ 



MEXICAN" ARTS. 617 

Another practice of the Mexicans, to which attention should 
be called, was that of interring a small green stone with the 
dead."' This was also done in Yucatan, "^'^ and the custom is in 
striking accord with the Chinese belief that smooth and clean 
jade-stone has the power to harmonize the hundred spirits of 
Nature, and that it should be placed in the tomb to illuminate the 
path of the spirits."" 

It has been a common Asiatic practice to " prepare the way," 
and " make the path straight," before any great ruler when he vent- 
ured abroad. Thus a mandate was issued by the king, the father 
of Buddha, throughout his dominions, that, wherever the prince 
should go, the roads and streets should be swept and watered, 
perfumes should be burned, and tapestries, flags, and canopies 
hung up.'^*' A similar custom existed in Mexico ; and it is 
said that when the prince Cacumatzin, lord of Tezcuco, and a 
nephew of Montezuma, came to visit Cortez, as soon as he 
alighted from the litter in which he was borne, some of his serv- 
ants ran before him to sweep the ground upon which he was 
about to tread.^^" 

Mention has already been made of the repeated statements 
of the Spanish conquerors, that Montezuma never used either the 
same garments or the same dishes twice.'** The same thing is 
said of the Dairi of Japan. " He and his wives wear new gar- 
ments every day. Everything necessary for their meals, and 
everything for their personal use, is renewed every day." '^^^ 

In India the common native dress consists of a large piece of 
cloth, which is rolled around the waist, one end being passed be- 
tween the legs, and then drawn up and fastened to the girdle. 
This method of covering is very ancient, for we find it repre- 
sented in numerous ancient figures.^^^® This was precisely the 
dress adopted by the Aztecs. An early English translation of 
Herrera describes it as follows : 

"The prime men wore a Rowler eight fingers broad round 
about instead of Breeches, and going several times around the 
waste, so that one end of it hung before and the other be- 
hind." '''' 

Gabriel de Chaves, in a report preserved in the publications 
of M. Temaux-Compans, gives the following description of the 
clothing of the natives : " All classes cover their nakedness with 
a long band of cloth, similar to an almaizar, which they wind 



618 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

several times about the body and then pass between the legs, the 
extremities falling in front down to the knees." ^^^^ 

This article of clothing was known as a maxtli^ of which 
Bancroft says that it was about twenty-four feet long, and nine 
inches wide, and was generally more or less ornamented at the 
end with coloured fringes and tassels, the latter sometimes nine 
inches long. The manner of wearing it was to pass the middle 
between the legs and to wind it about the hips, leaving the ends 
hanging one in front, and the other at the back, as is done at this 
day by the Malays and other East Indian natives.'"" 

While speaking of the dress, it may also be noticed that the 
Mexicans wore an armour of quilted cotton, which, while it an- 
swered its purpose of protecting the wearer from arrows, was 
useless against the musketry of the Spaniards. A similar quilted 
dress was Avorn by the Tartars as a defensive armour.'" 

It is well known that the Chinese used suspension-bridges 
for many centuries before they were known in Europe. The 
Mexicans also, as well as the Peruvians, used bridges of this 
kind, which are thus described by Clavigero : " They are 
woven of certain ropes or natural ligaments of a tree more 
pliant than the willow, but larger and stronger, called in 
America the JBejucos. The extremities of these are attached to 
the trees on opposite sides of the stream, and the network is sus- 
pended in the air between them like a swing. Some bridges had 
their ropes so tightly drawn that they did not undulate, and they 
all had their side supports made of these same ropes. Over some 
rivers, bridges of this nature are still found." '"" 

The books of the Mexicans and Mayas also resembled those 
of some of the nations of Asia ; being written " on a large leaf, 
doubled in folds, and inclosed between two boards, which they 
made very fine [decorated], and they wrote on both sides in col- 
umns according to the folds." ^*° The paper was folded back and 
forth in a particular manner, almost like the paper or other 
material of our fans. In this respect the Mexican paintings 
offer a close analogy to the Siamese manuscripts, which have been 
preserved in the Imperial Library of Paris, which are also folded 
" en zigzag.'''' '^^* 

One of the most remarkable peculiarities in which the Mexican 
customs resembled those of some of the Buddhist nations of Asia 
was connected with the ceremony of marriage. In Mexico, the 



MEXICAN ARTS. 619 

priest, after the arrival of the bride at the house of the bride- 
groom, tied the gown of the one to the mantle of the other ; and 
in this ceremony the matrimonial contract chiefly consisted.'*^' 

The newly married couple sit upon a mat together during the 
first four days after their marriage, not leaving it until midnight, 
when they go together to burn incense before the domestic gods. 
. . . For the young married couple these four days are a time of 
penitence, during which they clothe themselves with the orna- 
ments of the gods for which they have the most devotion. They 
pass the nights separated from each other, each upon a separate bed 
prepared by the priests. These beds consist of mats covered with 
superstitious symbols, having at the side some ears of maize, and 
some maguey-thorns, with which to draw blood in honour of the 
divinity. It is not until the fourth day that they are permitted 
to consummate their marriage, any anticipation being considered 
as unlucky for the future."" 

The marriage ceremonies of the Hindoos are remarkably simi- 
lar to those of the Mexicans in some leading particulars (" Asiat. 
Res.," vii, p. 309 ; Ward's "View of the Hindus," i, p. 173), 
and which, to avoid a tedious description, we shall but recapitu- 
late. The bridegroom goes in procession to the house of the 
bride's father, and is there welcomed as a guest. The bride is 
then given to him in the usual form of any solemn donation, 
and their hands are bound together with grass ; the bride- 
groom then clothes the bride with an upper and lower garment ; 
then the skirts of their mantles are tied together, the bridegroom 
makes oblations to the fire, and the bride drops rice upon it, and 
after several inconsiderable ceremonies the company is dismissed ; 
the marriage being now complete and irrevocable. In the even- 
ing of the same day, the bridegroom points out to her the pole 
star, as an emblem or figure of constancy ; during the three subse- 
quent days the married coiqile must live chastely and austerely, 
and after these three days, which is the fourth from the celebra- 
tion of the marriage ceremony, the bridegroom conducts the bride 
to his own house. The custom of tying the garments of the bride 
and bridegroom together was also practiced in the marriage of the 
ancient Persians. (Hyde, " De Religio Vet. Pers.,'' p. 405.) '^' 

In some parts of India marriage is not consummated until the 
husband and the wife, sleeping apart, have for seven days eaten 
together seven times a day."** 



* 
620 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

In the Mexican empire, as in most Asiatic countries, polyg- 
amy was tolerated, the kings and princes taking a great number 
of wives ; but in general they had only one who was regarded as 
their legitimate spouse, and of whom the marriage was cele- 
brated according to the customary rites. '"^ In both Yucatan 
and India it was customary to carry young children astride on 
the hip ; ^"" and in Mexico, as in China, it was the practice to place 
in the hands of a child, at a festive gathering, held a few days 
after its birth, toy instruments of war, of craft, or of household 
labour,^" symbolical of those with which it was expected that 
its after-life would be engaged. 

Among the minor coincidences between Mexican and Asiatic 
life, it may be mentioned that the thin oval cakes of meal which 
formed the principal food of the Aztecs, as well as of the Mexi- 
cans of the present day, closely resemble the chapati of India,'^** 
and that a Mexican game QdWa^ patolli, which is described in the 
Spanish chronicles as played with coloured stones moved on the 
squares of a cross-shaped figure, according to the throws of beans 
marked on one side, corresponds closely with the Hindoo back- 
gammon called pachisi. (See Tylor, in " Jour. Anthrop. Inst.," 
vol. viii, p. 116.) '^'« 

In presenting these coincidences between the religious prac- 
tices, the arts and the customs of the Mexicans and the na- 
tives of Yucatan in America, and those of the Asiatic Buddhists, 
many countries in Asia have been mentioned. This has seemed 
legitimate, as the five Buddhist priests must have been acquainted 
with many Asiatic countries before they reached America. 
Moreover, a large part of the civilization of Asia is Buddhistic in 
its origin, and the same practices, customs, and arts were intro- 
duced by the Buddhist priests throughout nearly all Asia. Many 
practices mentioned by travelers as existing in a certain country 
may also exist in others, without having been mentioned by 
any explorer ; and arts and customs once introduced into many 
lands may now survive in only one. 

It may be said that not only did the Mexican civilization so 
closely resemble that of Asia as to make it almost incredible 
that the two can have grown up entirely independent of each 
other, but that even the arts and useful customs known to the 
Europeans, and not known to the Mexicans, were either equally 
unknown to the Asiatics or were not practiced by them. 



MEXICAN ARTS. 621 

Milk, and food made from it, were, for instance, formerly- 
unknown to the Americans as articles of diet.^^^' If the Mexi- 
can civilization had been founded upon any introduction of Euro- 
pean ideas, there can be no doubt that the use of these articles 
would have been known. Humboldt pointed out, however, that 
several nations of Eastern Asia equally ignored their use.'^=* 
Milk, butter, and curds are all insupportably odious to a Chi- 
nese,^"" and the Buddhists of Java, who are so little scrupulous in 
diet as to eat not only the flesh of the cow, but even that of 
dogs and other animals, never use milk as an article of food.^'^' 

Before closing this chapter, it may not be out of place to 
again call attention to the fact that many independent observers 
have been led, by some one or more of the coincidences that have 
been noted, to the belief that they could be most easily accounted 
for on the supposition that the practices or arts in question were 
borrowed by the Mexicans from Asia. The authors of the arti- 
cle upon Mexico in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (Tylor and 
Keane) say that these details of Mexican civilization do not 
seem ancient enough to have to do with a remote Asiatic origin 
of the nations of America, but rather to be the results of com- 
paratively modern intercourse between Asia and America, prob- 
ably since the Christian era.'^'® In other words, these gentle- 
men, paying no attention to the story of Hwui Shan, have been 
led, by the study of Mexican civilization, to the belief that there 
was a visit of some kind from Asia to America, at just about the 
time that Hwui Shan says the party of Buddhist priests visited 
Fu-sang. 

More than a century ago there sprang up a school of critics 
who disputed the unanimous testimony of the ecclesiastics, the 
soldiers, and the historians who first witnessed the remarkable 
civilization of Mexico. No such arts, customs, or religious prac- 
tices were found elsewhere in America ; the Americans were in 
reality one homogeneous people, and therefore those who bore 
witness of the peculiar civilization of Mexico were either them- 
selves deceived or else deliberately attempted to deceive others, 
and their stories were either without foundation, or else were 
gross exaggerations or perversions of the truth. 

This was the course of reasoning adopted by these critics. 
The facts were all against them, it is true — so much the worse for 
the facts. Clavigero, meeting this species of criticism, when he 



622 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

commenced the publication of his " Ancient History of Mexico," 
replied to it as follows : 

" Those who foolishly claim to know all about the ancient 
Mexicans by their descendants, or else by the nations of Canada 
or of Louisiana, will consider as fables, invented by the Spaniards, 
what we have to say of their knowledge, their laws, and their 
arts. But that we may not violate the laws of history, nor the 
fidelity due to the public, we shall candidly set forth all that we 
have found to be true, without fear of censure." '"" 

Of late there has been a revival of the same species of criti- 
cism as that of which Clavigero complained, and there are not 
wanting those who are ready to deny the unanimous testimony 
of innumerable independent witnesses, in order that their own in- 
ferences may take the place of the proven facts. Mr. Bancroft's 
" Native Races of the Pacific States " has been attacked by several 
of this ilk, on the ground that he, like other historians, has been 
guided by the statements of eye-witnesses, rather than by the 
customs of " the nations of Canada." 

The grain of truth contained in the views of these critics 
renders their argument all the more dangerous. The natives of 
Mexico were Indians, of the same race as other American In- 
dians. Many of their customs were undoubtedly founded upon 
practices existing before their lives had been swayed by any for- 
eign influence. Upon these, the discoveries of Morgan and his 
followers, in regard to the organization and customs of other In- 
dian tribes, will undoubtedly throw much light ; and many things, 
which the early Spanish historians understood but imperfectly, 
may in this way be now more fully explained. There is only one 
theory, however, which will account for all the facts. That is 
that, at some time in the past, the nations of Mexico, Yucatan, and 
Central America were powerfully affected by the introduction 
of Asiatic arts, customs, and religious belief ; that, when this 
region was rediscovered by the Europeans, many evidences of 
this influence still existed in these countries, and that the state 
of civilization found by the Spaniards was the result of this 
adoption of Asiatic customs and beliefs, which were mixed with 
or engrafted upon such civilization as the natives themselves had 
previously been able to attain. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE HISTORY OF JAPAJT. 

Records reaching back nominally to 660 b. c. — Gaps in the history — Great age of 
sovereigns — A giant — Absence of exact dates — The introduction of writ- 
ing — Manufacture of paper — Chinese records of embassies — Mention of a 
Japanese sovereign whose name does not appear in the Japanese annals — 
Translation of extracts from the Japanese history — Intercourse with Corea 
and China — Embassies — Wars — Introduction of Buddhism — Titles of nobility 
— Copper, silver, and gold — Intercourse of Corea with Japan and China — The 
Chinese account of Japan — The route from China to Japaa — The distance — 
Cattle and horses not raised — Tattooing — Clothing — Cities — Polygamy — Laws 
— Burial of the dead — The " Chi-shuai " — An envoy — A later embassy — A 
Japanese princess — The kingdom of Kiu-nu ; that of Chu-ju — The Eastern 
Fish-People — A Chinese expedition to seek for P'ung-lai — Tan-cheu — Route to 
Japan — The divisions of Japan — Titles of the officers— Embassies — Tattooing 
— Absence of writing — Mourning-garments — Buddhism — Route to Japan — 
Discovery of gold, silver, iron ore, and copper — The Country of Women — 
Reasons why Fu-sang can not have been situated in Japan — Consideration 
of other theories — Proof that Hwui ShSn had visited some unknown land — 
Had the Chinese any earlier knowledge of America ? — The Shan Hai King. 

As it has been thought by some that the country visited by 
Hwui Shan was situated in some part of Japan, it will be perti- 
nent to examine the history of that kingdom, and the accounts 
regarding it possessed by the Chinese in early ages, to see 
whether any such coincidences can be found in the manners and 
customs of the people, and in the plants and animals of the coun- 
try, with those of the land of Fu-sang, as to make this theory 
tenable. 

The Japanese possess a concise history of their country, 
which gives a short account of the principal events occuring in 
the land, and which runs back, nominally, as far as the year 660 
B. c. There are numerous gaps in the record for the first thousand 
years, however, and as late as a. d. 435 there is a hiatus from that 



624: AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

date until the year 453, It is evident that until this time, or a 
little later, the record is of little value, and is merely a compilation 
at some later date of the traditions then current in the country 
as to its early history. From the earliest date that is named 
(660 B. c), up to the year 399 a. d., we are presented with a list 
of sovereigns, almost all centenarians, some of whom are said to 
have attained the age of one hundred and forty years, and one 
of whom is stated to have been ten feet tall ; it is also notice- 
able that neither the month, nor the day of the month, on which 
any event occurred is mentioned prior to the year 643 a. d.,'^^* 
but that after that time they are frequently named. 

The date of the introduction of the art of writing, and that of 
the first manufacture of paper in the country (which will be re- 
ferred to farther on), also indicate that their history was not re- 
duced to writing prior to the third century a. d., and more prob- 
ably not until about the sixth century. 

It is the long life attributed to their early sovereigns, how- 
ever, which more than any other cause tends to throw sus- 
picion upon their historical records. Such a chronology imme- 
diately inspires more than doubt, and the idea at once presents 
itself that the memory of a good many of the ancient sover- 
eigns has been lost, and that the gaps which would be so caused 
in Japanese history are filled up by extending the reigns of 
which the remembrance has been preserved. Klaproth evi- 
dently had this suspicion when he wrote, "From the year 
660 B. c. to 400 A. D,, the history of Japan mentions only sev- 
enteen emperors, a nuniber too small for so great a length of 
time." But that which for Klaproth Avas merely a probable 
hypothesis has been placed by M. d'Hervey beyond all reason- 
able doubt. Ma Twan-lin, in his writings, mentions. all the em- 
bassies sent by Japan to China, naming the Japanese emperors 
from whom they bore homage or tribute, and also stating the 
dates. Among others, he mentions that in the year 107 a. d. 
envoys came to China, from the king of Japan, named Shui Shing. 
The Japanese chronology indicates that at this date a prince was 
reigning aged one hundred and seventeen years, named Kei Ko 
(or, in Chinese, King Hang), who lived to the age of one hundred 
and forty years, and it does not mention the king Shui Shing of 
whom Ma Twan-lin reveals the existence and preserves the name. 

It is therefore evident that the early portion of the record can 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN. 625 

not be relied upon, any further than that it is probably a faithful 
preservation of the recollections and traditions of the country 
as they existed about the sixth century a. d. The account of 
events that happened as late as the date of Hwui Shan's visit to 
China (499 a. d.) seems, however, to be deserving of entire credit, 
as there was then some little knowledge in the country of writing 
with Chinese characters, and the official history of the kingdom 
was reduced to writing either about this time or within a cent- 
ury after. 

The following extracts are presented from the translation of 
these records, which was made by Siebold, as having a bearing, 
more or less direct, upon Hwui Shan's story : 

B. c. 87. Many immigrants arrived from foreign countries.''"' 

B, c. 81. By command of the Mikado, ships were built in ^^^^ dif- 
ferent districts. 

B, c. 33. Japan received the first visit from Mvnayia, a land 
in the southern part of the Corean peninsula.^''" 

B. c. 27. A son of the king of Sm-ra * came to Japan and 
brought many valuable things, f *'''* 

A. D. 57. A deputation went from Jajian to Han (China). J An 
account of this visit is contained in the Chinese 
history of the later Han Dynasty."" 

A. D. 59. Kijojiko, a descendant of the prince who came from 
Sln-ra in the year 27 b. c, presented to the court of 
the Mikado the curiosities which had been brought 
into the country by the prince. They were es- 
teemed as objects of great value, and carefully pre- 
served in the treasury.**"* 

A. D. 61. Tatsima Mori left Japan, by order of the Mikado, in 
order to bring back the " fragrant fruit." ^'" 

A. D. 71. Tatsima Mori returned to Japan from ToTco jojio 
kuni (the Land of Eternity), bringing with him the 
" fragrant fruit " (i. e., the pomegranate).^"* 

* The ancient kingdom of Sin-ra (or " Sin-lo,'' as the Chinese pronounce the 
name) occupied the province of Corea, now called K'ing Chang,'^^' which is situ- 
ated in the eastern part of that country.'"* 

■f These presents are said to have consisted of mirrors, Oriental jade, sabers, 
cutlasses, and other valuable articles.'*^* 

X This embassy reached China in the last year of the reign of the emperor 
Kwang Wu Hwang Ti.i«" 
40 



626 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

A. D. 193. In this year Kung Man-icang, a descendant of the 
Chinese emperor Shi Hwang Ti, came to Japan.'^*" 

A. D. 201. The fifteenth Mikado was Zin-gu Kwo-gu, known in 
her life-time as Oki naga tarasifimeno mikoto, 
great-granddaughter of the Mikado Kai Kioa, 
daughter of the prince Okinaga Sukune. In the 
third month she conquered the race of Kuma-oso, 
in ICiusiu, with her troops, and annihilated the 
robber Kuma-wasi with his followers, and peace 
and order were restored in Kiusiu. In the tenth 
month she with her large army undertook a plun- 

« dering expedition against Sin-ra, whose king im- 

mediately surrendered to her. Kao-li * and Fe-tsi f 
also came and submitted themselves to her, so that 
the three Kara state all became subject to the 
Japanese empire. In the twelfth month, after re- 
turning to Japan, she bore a son in Tsukusi who 
afterward succeeded her upon the throne of the 
Mikado.^^''' 

A. D. 239. An embassador was sent to the Wei dynasty "^'^ (of 
China).t 

A. D. 240. The Wei dynasty sent an embassy in return.''^^^ 

A. D. 24G. Embassadors were sent to Toksiu.^^^* 

A, D. 249. A Japanese expedition went to Toksiu, and from that 
country attacked Sin-ra}"^^^ 

A. D. 250. By command of the government, stations were intro- 
duced throughout the kingdom for the change of 
post-horses. ^°'^'' 

A. D. 262. A Japanese expedition attacked Sin-ra.''-" 

A. D. 266. A Japanese embassy visited Tsin ( China). °^®'' 

A. D. 272. The country of Fe-tsi neglected to pay tribute to Ja- 

* Kao-li (pronounced " Ko-rai " by the Japanese) was a province of Corea,'^'''^ 
from which the whole country has since taken the name by which it is known to 
Europeans.'"' 

f The ancient kingdom of Pe-tsi was situated in the province of Corea, now 
called Ts'iuan.'^^* 

X The " History of China " speaks of this embassy as follows : " The second of the 
years king t'su (238 a. d.), under the emperor Ming Ti, of the "Wei dynasty, Pi Mi 
Hu, queen of the country of Wo (Japan), sent to the capital one of her noblemen, 
who bore tribute. The emperor gave him a golden seal in an envelope of purple 
silk.»"9 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN. 627 

pan. In retaliation Kitsuno SuJcime was sent with 
an expedition against it. The inhabitants of the 
country slew their king. The Japanese placed 
Akwa upon the throne and returned home.'^''^* 

A. D. 276. San Kan and Mimana brought tribute.*"" 

A. D. 284. The king of Pe-tsi sent his son Atogi with horses to 
Japan. Atogi laid in Japan the first foundation of 
a knowledge of Chinese writing."" 

A. D. 285. The Chinese philosopher Wang Shin came from Pe-tsi 
to the Japanese court and gave the first instruction 
in Chinese literature. ^"'^ 

A. D. 289. Immigration of two Chinese families.^*" 

A. D. 324. An iron shield and target were sent to Japan from 
Kao-U, and an officer of the shield-bearers pierced 
them with an arrow-shot. ''^'^ 

A. D. 368. The people of Jesso revolted. Damitsi undertook 
an expedition against them, suffered defeat, and re- 
turned."" 

A. D. 414. A Chinese physician was called from Sin-ra in order 
to cure the Mikado of a disease.'-'"' 

A. D. 462. Strangers from the land of Wu brought presents to 
the court. * ^"^ 

A..D. 464. A deputation was sent to the land of TTw."'^ 

A. D. 465. A Japanese expedition made war upon Sin-ra, and 
suffered a defeat.*"^ 

A. D. 467. Kui Sin, a native of the land of Wi(, came from Pe-tsi 
to Japan. *^^° 

A. D. 463. 3fusa?io-atoo and a learned man of FinoTcuma went 
as an embassy to the land of Wii."^'^^ 

A. D. 475, Kao-li conquered Pe-tsi.""^- 

A. D. 477. Pe-tsi, under King Monsu, recovered its independ- 
ence. ^^^^ 

A. D. 493. Fitaka no Jcisi (falconer), of N'aniva, returned from 
a mission to Kao-li, with two architects."'" 

A. D. 543, Pe-tsi sent a valuable apparatus, which pointed out 
the south ^^^ (i. e., a magnetic compass). 

A. D. 546. The embassadors from Pe-tsi returned home with a 
present of seventy horses and ten ships. "*^ 

* China was at this time divided into three kingdoms, called Wei, Shu, and Wu. 



1619 



628 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

A. D. 552. J*e-tsi sent a statue of Buddha to the Japanese court, 
and also Buddhistic utensils and books ; but as a 
contagious disorder broke out among the people at 
this time, the statue was, by order of the higher 
authorities, sunk in the river, and the temple built 
for it was burned.* ^^^' (Although these last facts 
are entered under the year 552, they did not take 
place until 585, thirty-three years later. See the 
record for this last-named date.) 

A. D. 553. Two colossal statues of Buddha were made by high 
authority.^^*^ 

A. D. 562. Oliodomono Sadefiko undertook an expedition against 
Kao-U, with several legions of men, conquered it, 
and returned to Japan with rich booty, among which 
were many books in the departments of Chinese 
Buddhistic and medicinal literature, and also many 
images of Buddha, and musical instruments.*^*® 

A. D. 577. The king of Pe-tsi sent books and writings, two Bud- 
dhist priests, a nun, and a sculptor.''^®'' 

A. D. 579. Sin-ra sent tribute ; among the rest an image of Bud- 
dha. *='' 

A. D. 584. Two Japanese, JTa fuJcano wonnoJco and Sae kino 
muraziy brought images of Buddha from JPetsi. 
Sogano Mumako built a temple in which they were 
placed. The religion of Buddha constantly spread 
more and more throughout the country.^*®* 

A. D. 585. A contagious disease broke out, which carried off a 
great part of the people. Oho murazi Monono 
beno juke morija gave the command to lay the 
temple of Buddha in ashes, and to throw Buddha's 

* The following account is given in another place : '^^^ This embassy pre- 
sented to the emperor an image of Buddha,, tents, parasols, and the classical books 
of the religion of Buddha. These presents were very agreeable to the Dairi. The 
minister Iname attempted to persuade him to adore this god ; but Mono no-he no- 
ogosi dissuaded him, saying, " Our kingdom is of divine origin, and the Dairi 
already has many gods to adore. If we worship those of foreign countries, our 
own gods will be angry." Intimidated by this argument, the Dairi presented the 
image to Iname, who with joy pulled down his house, and constructed upon its 
site the temple of Hiang-yuanszu. Here he placed the idol, and constantly paid 
his worship to it. It is from this time that the introduction of the religion of 
Sakya (Buddha) into Japan dates. 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN. 629 

images into the canal Fori-je, of Kaniva. Three 
months later Sogano Mumako asked for permis- 
sion to profess the Buddhist faith, and the Mikado 
refused to give his consent."^^ 

A. D. 588. The minister Mumako built the Buddhist temple 
F6-M6-sl, i. e., the Temple of the Reception of the 
Law.''^" 

A. D. 590. Several nuns, at the head of whom was Sen Sin, " the 
Virtuous, the Believing," came from Pe-tsi to Ja- 
pan.^^^' 

A. D. 593. Prince 3fumajadono raiko founded the Buddhist 
temple called the " Temple of the Four Heavenly 
Kings." **^« 

A. D. 594. An order was issued to extend the Buddhist doctrine 
and to build Buddhist temples.''^" 

A. D. 603. The twelve ranks or titles of nobility, with distin- 
guishing caps, were introduced.^*^'' 

A. D. 604. Prince Mumajadono miko composed the seventeen 
Buddhist precepts, and introduced innovations in 
the court creemonies. ^^°° 

A. D. 606. The colossal copper image of Buddha was set up in 
the Temple of the Reception of the Law.*^"' 

A. D. 612. Music was taught for the first time.'^^"'* 

A. D. 624, The Buddhist clergy were organized, and placed un- 
der the supervision of a high-priest. '^^^ 

A. D. 625. Kao-li sent the Buddhist priest Jei Kwan to Ja- 
pan.^^"* 

A. D. 708. The first silver was received from the province of 
Musasi. The copper mint Wa-do-kai-tsin was 
established.^^«^ 

A. D. 709. A law was established against the private coinage of 
silver money. '^"^ 

A. D. 749. The province of Mutsu delivered the first gold to the 
emperor.*^" 

A. D. 750. The prince of the province of Suruga brought gold, 
which he had found, to the court of the Mikado.*^"' 

A. D. 760. New copper, gold, and silver mints were established 
and set in operation.-^"® 

A, D. 792. The learning of the Chinese language according to 
the Han dialect was commanded."'" 



630 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

A. D. 861. The calendar which had been in use in China since 

821 was introduced into JajDan.^^^' 
A. D. 1034. The study of the Chinese literature became a means 
of obtaining a livelihood.'^^^^ 

Fortunately, we are not compelled to rely ixpon this record 
alone for our knowledge of the early condition of Japan. Corea 
and Japan have had constant relations with each other from a 
date prior to the commencement of the Christian era, as have 
also Corea and China. The Chinese must have, therefore, had 
some knowledge of Japan, even at the time, in the year 57 a. 
D., when the first recorded embassy from that country visited the 
Chinese emperor. After that date, visits back and forth be- 
tween the two countries were of frequent occurrence. 

In accordance with their usual custom, the Chinese historians 
reduced to writing such information regarding the country as 
they were able to obtain, and as they thought of interest. These 
accounts were collected and condensed by Ma Twan-lin, and ex- 
tracts from the translation of his work made by M. the Marquis 
d'Hervey de Saint-Denys are given below. It may be pre- 
mised that the Chinese author arranged his authorities in chro- 
nological order, and the first statements are therefore drawn from 
the oldest authorities. 

The country of Wo, Japan, is southeast of the country of the 
Han, and of the government of Tai-fang.^^^^ It is formed of a 
collection of islands situated in the midst of the Great Sea. The 
distance of the journey to it from the districts of Lo-lang or 
Tai-fang is about twelve thousand ?i.* It contains more than a 
hundred kingdoms. At the time when the emperor Wu-ti, of the 
Han dynasty, conquered Chao-sien (Corea), more than thirty of 
these kingdoms maintained steadfast relations with the Chinese 
empire by embassies, or by messages. 

Each kingdom has its hereditary king. The great king of 

* This distance seems to have been given by the Coreans, and adopted by the 
Chinese. M. de Eosny thinks, however, that he has found the original document 
from which Ma Twan-lin drew his geographical descriptions, and calls attention to 
a variation in the reading which gives the distance of one of the divisions of the 
journey (that from Kiu-ye-han to Tsusima) as one thousand U instead of seveyi thou- 
sand. This correction removes most of the confusion regarding the length of the 
li, which has arisen from the fact that the journey to Japan was described as being 
twelve thousand li in length. See d'Hervey's " Ethnography."— E. P. V. 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN. 631 

Wo resides in the kingdom of Ye-yen-tai (now pronounced 
Ye-mo-to, i. e., Yamato), which kingdom is found twelve thou- 
sand li from the frontiers of the government of Lo-lang and 
more than seven thousand li from the kingdom of Kiu-ye-han 
(a small kingdom situated at the southeastern extremity of 
Corea), which is toward the northwest. Its territory is almost to 
the east of Kuei-M and Tong-ye. It is near Chu-yai and Tan- 
eul, and the customs and laws of these different regions are very 
similar to each other. 

The soil is suitable for the cultivation of rice and hemp, and 
of mulberries, which are used to feed silk-worms. The people 
know how to spin and weave ; they make the silk cloth called 
hien-pu. They have white pearls and green jade. Their mount- 
ains furnish cinnabar. The climate is temperate. In winter, 
as in summer, they reap crops. Neither cattle, horses, panthers, 
sheep, nor fowls are seen. 

The arms of the Japanese are the lance, the shield, the 
wooden bow, and bamboo arrows, the heads of which are some- 
times made of bone. All the men have the face marked with 
black spots, and the body tattooed. According as the tattooing 
is upon the right or left side, large or small, it indicates the 
nobility or the humbler position of the person. The men clothe 
themselves by placing cloth about their bodies and holding it to- 
gether by means of knots. The women at first let their hair fall 
about them, and then coil it up and fasten it in place. Their 
robe is like a simple covering, or piece of cloth, with a hole 
through which the head is passed. They smear their bodies 
with a red powder, just as the Chinese women do with paint. 

The Japanese have cities surrounded by an inclosure of 
palisades and great houses. The father, the mother, the elder 
brothers and the younger brothers live separately, but the boys 
and girls show themselves freely in public. They eat with 
their fingers, but they use vases similar to those which in China 
are cdX\e^ pien-teit (a species of vases made of bamboo). It is 
a general custom with them to go barefoot. They do not con- 
sider it impolite to sit without attention to their position, leaning 
upon their elbows with their legs extended, or even holding 
their knees with their hands. They love to drink wine. They 
often live to a great old age, many of them being more than 
one hundred years old. In their country there are many girls 



632 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

(i. e., more girls are born than boys ; a fact said to be true at 
the present clay). The great personages have generally four 
or five wives. Others possess two or three. The women are 
neither debauched nor jealous. The men are not inclined 
either to robbery or brigandage. They have few legal forms. 
If any one violates the law, his wife and children are reduced to 
servitude. If the crime is very grave, his entire race is extermi- 
nated. The bodies of the dead are preserved for ten days or 
more, the people of the house lamenting, and abstaining from eat- 
ing and drinking ; then their friends come singing and dancing 
to drive away their sorrow. The bones of the dead are burned, 
to be used in sorcery, good or evil omens being drawn from 
them. 

The sailors take with them a man, who is forbidden to comb 
or wash himself, to eat food, or to approach any woman. This 
man is called Chi-shuai. If the voyage is fortunate, he is re- 
warded with rich presents ; but if unfortunate, if they have met 
with accidents, or suffered from disease, it is thought that the 
Chi-shuai has not been attentive to his duties, and they all join 
in putting him to death. 

In the year a, d. 57 the kingdom of Japan sent an embassador, 
bearing its homage, and its felicitations, and carrying presents. 
This embassador gave himself the title of Ta-fu. His master 
resided in the southern portion of Japan. The emperor Kwang- 
wu gave him an official seal with its silk envelope. 

In the year 107 a. d. the envoys of the king of Japan, named 
Shui Shing, came offering slaves to the number of a hundred 
and sixty, and soliciting an audience of the emperor. 

At about the time when Hiao Ling-ti inherited the throne of 
his father (168 a. d.) great troubles burst upon Japan. Civil 
war coloured the waves with blood, and for a number of years 
the country remained in a state of anarchy. There was then a 
princess named Pi-mi-hu (the same whom the Japanese call Zin- 
gu Kioo-gu, or the empress Zin-gu). When she became of age 
she would not marry, but devoted herself to the worship of 
demons and spirits, and astonished the people with her sorceries ; 
and hence they all recognized her as their queen. She had a thou- 
sand servants. She allowed herself to be seen but seldom, and 
had an attendant who carried food to her, and who conveyed her 
orders. She lived in a palace fortified with towers several stories 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN". 633 

in height, and surrounded by palisades, and always guarded by 
soldiers. Her laws were severe. 

From the kingdom of this queen, in an easterly direction, and 
across the sea at a distance of more than one thousand li, the 
kingdom of Kiu-niL was to be found ; of which the inhabitants, 
although they were all of the same race as the Japanese, were 
nevertheless not submissive to the authority of the queen. 

From the kingdom of this queen, toward the south, at a dis- 
tance of more than four thousand ^^, is the kingdom of Chu-ju, of 
which the people are of the height of three or four Chinese feet. 
To the southeast of Chu-ju, by mailing a year, the Kingdom of Lo, 
or the Naked People, is found, and the Black-Teeth Kingdom, 
countries with which periodical relations have been maintained. 
No one has ever been farther. 

Beyond the sea of Kwei-hi (the sea from the mouth of the 
Hoang-ho or the Yang-tse-kiang to the strait of Formosa, now 
called Tong-hai, or the Eastern Sea) are the Tong-ti-jin* (the 
Eastern Fish-People). They form more than two thousand 
kingdoms. 

Y-cheu and Tan-cheu are also to be found. Tradition reports 
that formerly Ts'in Shi Hwang Ti sent a priest, of the name of 
Sin-fu, with some thousands of young people, boys and girls, to 
explore the sea and seek for P\cng-lai, the home of the immortals. 
Not being able to discover this marvelous place, and fearing the 
punishment which Ts'in Shi Ehcang Ti might inflict upon him, 
Sin-fu did not dare to return. He remained in the islands which 
bear his name. In the course of generations they were peopled 
with several scores of thousands of families, and from time to time 
the people of this country have come to Kiiei-Jci for the purposes 
of commerce. 

It is also stated that inhabitants of Kuei-ki and of Tong-ye, 
sailing upon the sea, have been driven by the winds until they 
reached Tan-cheu ; but the distance is so great that (as a rule) 
it is impossible to go or return. 

* Williams, p. 884, defines the Tong-ti-jin as the Chusan Islanders. D'Hervey 
adds this note : " Ma Twan-lin does not say anything more about these people ; 
but if we remember that beyond this Eastern Sea there is the Pacific Ocean, we 
may suppose that this term is used to designate the numerous islanders, as to which 
the Chinese lacked precise information, although they were not ignorant of their 
existence in the midst of the Great Sea." 



634 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

(Here follow the accounts of a country situated at a great 
distance southwest of Japan inhabited by naked black people, as 
given in the description of Chu-ju. Also the accounts of Wen- 
shin — or the land of "Marked Bodies" — and Great Han.) 

We read in the " Chronicles of the Wei Dynasty " : " To reach 
Japan, starting from the government of Tai-fang, the coast 
should be followed. The country of the Hmi is passed and left 
behind, at first to the south, and then to the west, and in this 
way the northern coast is reached, where the country of Kiu-ye- 
han is situated. After having gone seven thousand li, the coun- 
try of Tui-hai is reached.* . . . Then, turning to the south, a 
sea of more than one thousand li, called the Han-Jiai, is crossed 
(the name Ilan-hai is also, according to M. de Rosny, given to 
an island situated near the southern coast of Corea), and a great 
country is reached, about three hundred li square. . . . Crossing 
a sea of more than one thousand li, the country of Mo-lu is 
reached. . . . Then, going by land about five hundred li to the 
southeast, the country of Yn-tu is reached. . . . One hundred 
li to the southeast is the kingdom of Nu. One hundred li to 
the east is the kingdom of JPu-mi. . . . By sailing along the 
southern coast for twenty days, the kingdom of Teu-ma is 
reached. . . . Finally, by sailing toward the south for ten days, 
or else by a land voyage of a month, the kingdom of Ye-ma-y 
is reached, which is that in which the queen resides. From the 
kingdom of this queen, toward the north, the population and 
the distances are known with approximate accuracy, but those of 
the distant kingdoms situated in other directions are not accu- 
rately known. The kingdoms which are known are those of 
Sse-yen, Hi-pe-chi, Y-ye, Kiun-cM, Mi-nu, Hao-hu-tu, Pu-hu, 
Tsie-nu, Tui-su, Sii-nu, Hu-y, Hoa-nu-su-nu, Kioei, Wei-u, 
Kv)ei-n%i, Ye-ma, Kong-chin, Pa-li, Chi-wei, TJ-nu, and Ku, 
which is the boundary of the sovereignty of the queen. To the 
south of this last kingdom is that of Kiu-nu. It is governed by 
a king. His functionaries are called Keu-hu-chi-pi-keu. From 

* The name means "a country which faces the sea." According to M. deRos- 
ny, it is the island of Tsii-sima. See a former note for an account of a varia- 
tion in the reading, discovered by M. de Rosny, in what he thinks to be the 
original document from which Ma Twan-lin drew his account, which reduces the 
distance from Kiu-ye-han to Tsu-sima to one thousand li instead of seven thou- 
sand. 



THE HISTOKY OF JAPAN. 635 

the capital of this kingdom to the kingdom of the queen the dis- 
tance is at least twelve thousand IV 

The titles of the mandarins or officers of most of the coun- 
tries above named are then given. None of them at all resemble 
the titles found in Fu-sang. Next in order come accounts of the 
visits of embassies from Japan to China, in the years 238, 242, 
246, 265, some time between the years 397 and 418, in 421, 425, 
444, 452, 463, 478, and at later dates. 

"A great number of the men and women have the back 
tattooed in black, the face marked in the same way, and 
the entire body often tattooed. They plunge into the water 
to fish. They have no writing, but merely cut certain marks 
upon wood, and make knots in cords ; but, in order to study 
the Buddhist religion, books were brought from the king- 
dom of Pe-tsi, and they thus became acquainted with written 
characters. . . . The dead are inclosed in a double coffin. 
The relatives and friends come singing and dancing to visit 
the body. The wife, the children, and the brothers wear mourn- 
ing-garments of white cloth. . . . Some time between the 
years 581 and 588 a. d. a Japanese embassy was sent to China 
by the direct maritime route, in order to obtain the Buddhist 
books called ' The Books of the Flowers of the Law.' ... In 
653 A. D. Lu-sse-tao went to China to study the Buddhist relig- 
ion. He studied three years under the bonze Hiuen-chong, 
and the books called Lu-lun were given him. . , . In 701 a 
bonze called So-tien was sent officially to China, to obtain the 
Buddhist books of which Lu-sse-tao had previously learned, and 
his mission was successful. . . . About the middle of the eighth 
century an embassy was sent to China, which included several 
priests, whose mission it was to procure a complete collection of 
Buddhist books, and to learn the deepest mysteries of the doc- 
trine of Fo." 

The historians of the empire have written : " To go to the 
kingdom of Japan, setting forth from Tai-fang, the kingdom of 
Chao-sien (Corea) is passed ; and sailing first toward the south 
and then to the west, three seas are crossed, and seven countries 
are visited ; and after having traveled a total distance of twelve 
thousand li, the capital is reached." 

The historians say again : " In order to reach it (the capital of 
Japan) from Lo-lang, or Tai-fang, the distance from either is 



636 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

twelve thousand li. Japan is situated to the east of Kwei-Jci, and 
it is not very far from Tan-eul. The route is therefore extremely 
long via Leao-tong, but it is quite short by the direct route, 
from the coast of Min or of CAe." 

In addition to the foregoing extracts from the " Ethnography " 
of Ma Twan-lin, the following statements, derived from a num- 
ber of different sources, will assist in throwing light upon the 
state of affairs in Japan during the fifth century of the Christian 
era: 

Gold was first discovered and melted in Japan in the year 
749 A. D., during the reign of the emperor Shomu ; "^^ it came 
from the department of Oda, in the province of Oshiu, and in the 
following year more was found in the province of Suruga. 

Silver ore was discovered accidentally in the year 667 a. d., 
in the island of Tsu-sima ; this ore produced the first Japanese 
silver metal, in the year 674. 

Loadstone was discovered in the year 713, in the province 
of 6mi. The exact date of the first manufacture of iron is un- 
known. . . . Japanese legends assert that the first sword was 
forged in the reign of the emperor Seijin (97-30 b. c.) ; but 
this statement is, of course, open to considerable doubt. Copper 
was, it is said, smelted in Japan for the first time in the year 
698, at Inaba, in the province of Suwo ; and in the year 708 the 
first Japanese copper coin was cast in the province of Musahi. 

We read in the history of Japan called Ni-2:)on Ki : " The 
third year of the reign of Ten-hii-ten-o, white silver was offered 
to him, the seventh day of the third month, by the prince of 
Tsu-sima. It is the first time that the mines of this metal had 
been worked in the empire." '^*' Klaproth adds to this transla- 
tion the statement that it is from this time that the use of silver 
in Japan dates. 

In a Japanese work entitled " Ko Dou Dzu Roku," or " A 
Memoir on Smelting Copper," it is said that for about a thousand 
years the copper from every district was chiefly of the third qual- 
ity, as the Japanese had not learned how to extract the silver ; 
so that they might be called deficient in manipulation. This is 
known from the fact that if broken copper utensils, made in the 
reign of Tenshei, and before him, be smelted, silver can always 
be extracted from them. The silver used in those days was all 
obtained from mines. At the end of Tenshei's reign certain for- 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN. 637 

eign merchants came to Sakai, in the country of Shen, and taught 
the mode of extracting silver to Sumitomo Zhiyusai ; this was 
in the year 1591.'"" 

In 1708 an influential minister of Japan brought the subject 
of the currency before the government, in an able memorial, of a 
portion of which the following is a translation : " A thousand 
years ago, gold, silver, and copper were unknown in Japan, yet 
there was no want of necessaries. The earth was fertile, and this 
is undoubtedly the most desirable species of wealth. After the 
discovery of these metals, the use of them spread but slowly, and 
so late as the time of Gongin they were still very rare. That 
prince was the first who caused the mines to be diligently 
wrought. ... In ancient times, as I have said, when the people 
were unacquainted with gold, silver, and copper, they knew no 
want, and were good and virtuous. Since those metals were dis- 
covered, the heart of man has become daily more and more de- 
praved." ""* 

From a statement made by Fischer,"" it appears that even at 
a comparatively recent date the Japanese did not understand 
the art of separating gold-dust from the sands of the rivers 
which contained it. 

The art of writing did not exist in Japan before the reign of 
the Mikado 0-zin (270 to 312 a. d,).^'" It is stated that it was 
in the year 284 '^^ that a prince of Corea brought the first knowl- 
edge of the art, and that immediately after, the tutor to that 
prince, a Chinese, named Wang Shin, having been invited, the 
Japanese courtiers applied themselves to the study of the Chinese 
language and literature. According to the Japanese historians, 
Wang Shin was the first teacher of the Chinese language in 
Japan. He brought the Liin yu (one of the books of Confucius) 
and other books, which he presented to the emperor, whose son he 
taught to read and write. Then were also introduced the arts of 
spinning, weaving, and sewing. He came from the kingdom of 
Wu, in Southern China. Since his time the ideographic characters 
of the Chinese have remained in use in Japan ; . . . but as the 
construction of the Japanese language differs materially from 
that of the Chinese, the syllabaries, called kata-Jcana and^ra- 
Jcana, were invented during the first half of the eighth cent- 

In China, silk or cloth was used for writing before paper was 



G38 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

made. This was invented by Ts'ai King-chung, alias Ts'ai Lun, 
about A. D. 100, who made it of the bark of the Broussonetia, 
old rags, and fishing-nets, all cut and rasped together.^^^^ 

In Japan, however, the introduction of writing-paper dated 
from the reign of the Mikado Sui-Jco (593 to 628), with which 
an embassy bearing presents had been sent from the kingdom 
of Kao-li (in Corea) ; but this paper lacked solidity and was bored 
by insects. The hereditary prince therefore tried the black mul- 
berry (Broussonetia), which has since continued to be the chief 
material used in the manufacture of Japanese paper. ■"^'' 

The tree from which paper is made '"^^ is the JBroiissonetia 
papyrifera,^*^ commonly known as the paper-mulberry. The 
Chinese call it |^, ch'u, or, more specifically, j^ ^, chV sang. A 
coarse kind of cloth is also made of it bj the Coreans, but the 
paper itself is much used for garments."^^ 

Among the titles applied to the rulers and noblemen of 
Japan are " Mikado " and " Siogoun." The potentate bearing 
the first of these two titles is also designated by a great number 
of others : among them being Kiibo, Kubo sama (i. e., " Lord 
Kubo "), Kinri Wori or Wori sama, Dairi, Sora Mikado, and 
Kinri. The Siogoun is also called TenJca or Tenka sama,^^^^ and 
the title Kubo is also sometimes applied to him.'"^" Tykoon, 
Koogili, Daimio, and Ilata moto are terms applied to various 
grades of Japanese oflBcials,"*' as are also Koku-shi, Sai-mio, and 

As the fact that a certain region of Japan was known as 
"the Country of Women" has been considered to add some 
weight to the theory that the country visited by Hwui Shan was 
situated in Japan, it may be of interest to learn to what portion of 
the kingdom this name was applied, and the reason of the desig- 
nation. 

At about the end of the first century of the Christian era, the 
Japanese Dairi sent his officer, called " the Prince of the War- 
riors of Japan," to crush out an insurrection of the Eastern 
Barbarians. While at sea, he was assailed by a great tempest, 
and one of his wives, believing the god of the sea to be angry 
with him, threw herself into the sea to api^ease him, and the tem- 
pest ceased. Afterward the prince, when he came to the top 
of the mountain called TIsu fi toghe, from which there is a 
beautiful view to the south and east, recalled the death of his 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN. 639 

wife, and cried with a deep sigh "Akatsuma" (i. e., "ray wife," 
"??ia /ewme"), and hence the eastern provinces of the empire 
received the name of " Atsuma," or " the Country of Women." "'^ 
With the foregoing information as to the early history of 
Japan, we are now prepared to consider the question whether this 
could by any possibility have been the country which Hwui 
Shan visited, and of which he attempted to give a description. 
The following facts seem to make this theory wholly incredible : 

1 . Japan was not an unknown country, or land of mystery, as 
to which marvelous tales would be likely to be told. It bad had 
relations with Corea before the beginning of the Christian era, 
and had sent an embassy to China in 57 a. d., fully four cent- 
uries before the party of Buddhist priests mentioned by Hwui 
Shan started on their travels. Since that time the visits back 
and forth had been numerous, and the Chinese of the fifth cent- 
ury were well acquainted with the country, its history, and its 
customs. 

2. Fu-sang was said to be situated twenty thousand li easterly 
from the country of Great Han (or rather, as is shown by other 
statements, southeasterly). This was five thousand li or more 
east of the country of " Marked Bodies," which in turn was seven 
thousand li or more northeasterly from Japan. How can it be 
believed that a traveler, starting from Japan, going seven thou- 
sand li to the northeast, then five thousand li to the east, and 
then twenty thousand li to the east or southeast, would at the 
end of his journey find himself in Japan, in the neighbourhood of 
the district from which he had set out ? If Great Han was 
twelve thousand li from Japan, how could Japan be twenty 
thousand li from Great Han ? It should also be remembered that 
Ma Twan-lin expressly declares that Japan is situated directly 
to the east of China, and that Fu-sang is situated directly east of 
Japan, and at a distance of thirty thousand li from China. (This 
is in a direct line, while the total distance of forty-four thousand 
li, which was traveled in going from one country to the other, 
shows that the route was indirect.) 

3. The most reliable histories of Japan emphatically deny 
that their country was ever called Fu-sang, or that any such region 
as that described by Hwui Shan was ever to be found in it. 

4. A country which lay both to the east of Great Han (a 
country twelve thousand li northeasterly from Japan) and to the 



640 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

east of China, must have been of great extent, or else situated at 
a great distance, or both, and hence could not have been a 
province of any of the islands constituting the kingdom of 
Japan. 

5. The country visited by Ilwui Shan derived its name from 
a wonderful plant or tree growing there. Neither Japan nor 
any of its districts derived its name from any plant or tree, and 
nothing at all answering to the fu-sang tree is found in that 
country. The only tree which answers the description in any 
respect is the ch'u sang, or paper-mulberry, and, although 
the people now make paper from its bark, this art was not 
known until at least a century after the days of our Buddhist 
priests. Furthermore, its first sprouts do not in the most re- 
mote degree resemble those of the bamboo, and the people never 
eat them. Its fruit is not a red pear, and no fruit of the kind 
is found in the country. 

6. The Japanese were not destitute of citadels and walled 
cities, or of military weapons or armour, and they were almost 
constantly engaged in military enterprises, 

7. Although they had some knowledge of the Chinese char- 
acters, they had no system of writing of their own until some 
centuries later. 

8. The titles of the ruler and of his nobility do not in any 
way resemble those of the kingdom of Fu-sang. 

9. Although they probably knew something of the value of 
gold and silver, they mined none themselves and they had no 
cop2)er. They probably had iron, or at least knew something 
about it, and about sabers and shields made from it, several 
centuries before. 

10. It was their custom to wear mourning-garments. 

11. Although there was a region of Japan which was some- 
times called the Country of Women, this region was well known, 
and did not contain any such inhabitants or plants as those 
described by Hwui Shan. 

12. The strongest argument against the location of Fu-sang 
in America — that it is said that horse-carts, cattle-carts, and deer- 
carts are found in the country — may be urged with equal force 
against the identification of that country with Japan. Ma 
Twan-lin states distinctly that neither cattle nor horses were 
raised in the country, and, up to the present day, carts or wagons 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN. 641 

are not used, and it is doubtful whether there is a road in the 
country upon which they could be used. 

13. Nothing at all corresponding to the southern and north- 
em place of confinement ; to the great assembly of the people to 
judge a guilty nobleman ; to the infliction of the death-penalty 
by smothering in ashes ; to the change of the colour of the 
king's garments from year to year ; to the use of immense 
horns ; to the practice of raising deer, or to the peculiar method 
of courtship mentioned by Hwui Shan — has ever been stated to 
exist in Japan. 

14. Perhaps the most convincing proof, however, that Japan 
and Fu-sang could, not possibly have been the same country, is 
found in the fact that the Buddhist religion was introduced into 
Fu-sang in 458 a. d., while the testimony is uniform and over- 
whelming that it was not until the year 552 that the first knowl- 
edge of the Buddhist religion reached Japan. 

If the argument is made that Fu-sang was situated in some 
remote region of Japan, not then under the sovereignty of the 
ruler of that country, and which had not previously been visited 
by the Chinese, or by the natives of the known portion of Japan, 
the facts that the people of Fu-sang were acquainted with the art 
of making paper, with the use of copper, and with the doctrines 
of the Buddhist religion, will be sufficient to overthrow the argu- 
ment ; for it can hardly be believed that any wild tribe in a 
remote corner of the country can have been further advanced in 
civilization than the people of the great empire of Japan, who 
for many centuries had visited, and been visited by, the people 
of the Asiatic Continent. 

As the hypothesis that Fu-sang was a portion of Japan seems 
to be wholly untenable, we are therefore thrown back upon the 
theories that Fu-sang was situated in America, or else that Hwui 
Shan invented the whole story. This last hypothesis is incredible 
to one who will read his account with any care. The motives which 
led to his journey, the credence which he succeeded in obtaining 
from all to whom he told his story, the so-called " silk " and the 
strange mirror that he brought back with him, the lack of the 
marvelous or impossible in his tale, the numerous little points in 
which his account is just such as would have been given by an 
eye-witness, and which no impostor has ever been able to success- 
fully imitate, all place it beyond question that he had been some- 
41 



642 AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

where, and that he attempted to give a truthful account of the 
land that he had found. 

This country must have been either in Japan or America. 
It is evident that it was not in Japan. No explanation of his 
story is therefore left us except that he had actually visited 
America. 

Before concluding this work, the inquiry may be made whether 
the Chinese had any earlier or other knowledge of America than 
that given them by Hwui Shun. It seems unquestionable that 
they had some earlier knowledge of a land which they called 
Fu-sang : but I hope to be able to show that this was a diilerent 
country ; that it took its name from the plantain or banana tree 
(called pisang by the Malays), and that it was situated in the 
Philippine Islands, or in some of the islands in their neighbour- 
hood, southeast of China. As, with the exception of the extracts 
translated by M. the Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, the prin- 
cipal account of this land of Fu-sang is found in the Shan Hai 
King, or Chinese " Classic of Mountains and Seas," I have at- 
tempted to translate all that part of the work which relates to 
the regions east of China. I am well aware of the fact that some 
errors will probably be found in the translation, by those who are 
more conversant than myself with the Chinese language. Never- 
theless, as no one else has undertaken to translate it, and as it 
seemed important that some light should be thrown upon the 
knowledge possessed by the Chinese regarding the countries lying 
east of them, I have ventured to do the best that I could with it, 
believing that I could at least give a correct general idea of the 
work, and that those who are able to rectify my errors will most 
deeply appreciate the disadvantages under which I have la- 
boured, and will be disposed to view with leniency such mistakes 
as I may make. 

This translation will be found in the following chapter. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 

Preface — Suh-chu Mountain — The Mountain of Creeping Plants — Aspen Mountain 
— Hairy birds — The Foreign Range — Kan fish— Ku-mao, Kao-shi/ Lofty, 
Wolf, Lone, Bald, and Bamboo Mountains— K'ung-sang, Ts'ao-chi, Yih-kao, 
and Bean Mountains — An excessively high peak — Tu-fu, Kang, Lu-k'i — 
Ktr-SHE, Green Jade-stone, Wei-shi, Ku-fcng, Fc-li, and Yin Mountains — 
Shi-hu, K'i, Chu-keu, Middle Fu, IIu-she, Mang-tsz', K'i-chung, Mei-ylt, and 
Wp-kao Mountains — The Fu-Tree (or Fr-SANG) — North Hag, Mao, Eastern 
Shi, Nu-ching, K'in, Tsz'-tung, Yen, and T'ai Mountains — The Cha Hill — 
The Great Men's Country — She-pi's body — The Country of Refined Gentlemen 
— HuNG-HUNG — The Valley of the Manifestation of the Dawn — The Green Hills 
Country — The journey of Shu-hai — The Black-Teeth Country — The Warm 
Springs Ravine — Fu-sang — The Place where the Ten Suns bathe — An ac- 
count of the Ten Suns — Yu-shi's concubine — The Black-Hip Country — The 
Hairy People's Country — A boat upon the sea-shore — The Distressed Peo- 
ple's Country — K'eu-wan3 — A great valley — Shao-hao — Pi-mu-ti Hill — Place 
where the Sun and Moon rise — The Great Men's Country — Giants and dwarfs 
— The Great People's Market — The Little People — Kijeh Mountain — The 
Country of Plants — Hoh-hij Mountain — The Mountain of the Eastern Pass — 
The Mountain of the Bright Star— The White People's Country— The Green 
Hills Country — The Nation of Courteous Vassals — The Black-Teeth Countr)' — 
Summer Island — The Kai-yu Country — Cheh-tan and the Place of the Rising 
of the Sun — Ytr-KWOH — Quaking Mountain — The Black-Hip Country — The 
Needy Tribe — King Hai — Ntr-CHEU — Yeh-tao-kiun-ti Mountain — The Fc- 
tree — Warm Springs Valley — I-t'ien-s0-man Mountain — The Ying Dragon — 
The Mountain of the Flowing Waves. 

The Classic of Mountains and Seas. 

PEEFAOE. 

The edition of the (book written by Confucius entitled) 
" Spring and Autumn," which was edited by Lu-siii, says that 
(the domain of the emperor) Ytj (who reigned about 2205 b. c.) 
reached on the east to the " Country of the Fu-tree," the nine 
" Places where the Sun Rises," the " Green Shepherds' Plains," the 



644 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

" Land of Numerous Trees," the " Mountain which Touches Heav- 
en," the " Valley of Birds," the " Region of the Green Mounds," 
and the " Black-Teeth Country." 

The Classic of Mountains and Seas. 

FOUETU BOOK. 

The Classic of the Eastern Jlountains. 

1. The beginning of the " Classic of the Eastern Mountains " 
says that Suh-chu Mountain * on its northern side adjoins Kan- 
MEi Mountain (or Sunless Mountain), f Shih River (or " drinkable 
■water ") is found here, a stream that flows northeasterly into the 
sea. In it there are many water animals called yung-tung. 
These look like brindled cattle [i. e., they resemble cattle that 
are striped like tigers]. Their voices sound like the grunting of 
swine. 

2. And it says that, three hundred U to the south, Lei Mount- 
ain (or the Mountain of Creeping Plants) is to be found. Upon 
this there are gems and below it there is gold. Hu River is found 
here, a stream that flows easterly into Shih River. In this there 
are many hwoh-shi. [These are tadpoles ; the book entitled 
the Rh'-ya calls them hwoh-tung.] 

3. And it says that, three hundred U to the south, Keu-chwang 
Mountain (or Aspen Mountain) is to be found. Upon this there 
are many gems and much gold, and below it many green jade- 
stones. Wild animals are found there which look like dogs with 
six legs. These are called ts'ung-ts'ung, the name being given 
them in imitation of their cry. Birds are also found there which 
look like domestic fowls, but which have hair like a rat. These 
are called tsz' rats. When they are seen, the country is subject 

* The character translated " mountain," in this and other cases, may mean 
" island " instead of " mountain." All islands are described as " hills " or 
" mountains," under the terms shan and tau. (See F. Porter Smith's " Vocab. of 
Chin. Prop. Names," p. 56.) 

f The words included in parentheses ( ) are possible variations in the transla- 
tion, or additions necessary to complete the sense. Those included in brackets 
[ ] are notes by the Chinese commentator, in the original work. The paragraphs 
are not numbered in the original, numbers being used in the translation for con- 
venience of reference. Many of the following notes have little or no bearing on 
the work ; but it was thought best to give everything that the translator could find 
which could be of any possible aid. 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 645 

to great drought. The Chi River is found here, a stream flowing 
northerly into Hu River. In this there are many lancet-fish. 
These are of a dark colour, spotted (or striped) with blue, and 
have a bill like a lancet. [These were originally found in the 
Eastern Sea,* and they are now found in the Kiang-tung f River 
also.] Those who eat them are not subject to epidemic diseases. 

4. And it says that, three hundred U to the south, Puh-t'san 
Mountain is found. It has no grass or trees, and no water. 

5. And it says that, three hundred U to the south, Fan-t'iao 
Mountain (or the Foreign Range) is to be found. It has no grass 
or trees, but has much sand. The Kien J (Diminishing) River is 
found here, a stream flowing northerly into the sea. In this 
there are many kan fish. (The kan fish is described as a fish 
three feet long, that is found in the Yang-tsz' River, having a 
large mouth and yellowish gills, and a greenish back.) [One 
authority names these '•' the yellow-jawed fish."] 

6. And it says that, four hundred li to the south, Ku-mao 
Mountain (or the Mountain of the Maiden) is found. Upon this 
there are many lacquer-trees, and below it many mulberry-trees, 
and silk-worm oaks. Ku-mao River is found here, a stream flow- 
ing northerly into the sea, in which there are many kan fish. 

7. And it says that, four hundred li to the south, Kao-shi ^ 
Mountain is to be found. Upon this there are many gems and 
below it many sharp stones. [From these they are able to 
make smooth lancets to cure boils and swellings.] Chu-shing 
River is found here, a stream flowing easterly into a marsh, and 
in it there are many gems and much gold. 

8. And it says that, three hundred li to the south. Yon |I (Lofty) 
Mountain is found. Upon this there are many mulberry-trees, 

* The " Eastern Sea " is the sea off the southeast coast of China. (See " Vocab. 
of Chin. Trop. Names," p. 58.) 

f KiANG-TUNG is a term applied to the right bank of the river Yang-tsz' in its 
course through Hu-peh. This name is also applied to Su-chau. (" Yocab. of Chin. 
Prop. Names," p. 20.) 

X There is a river in Chih-li bearing this name. (See Williams's Diet., p. 883.) 

* Kao-shi was the name of a man who usurped the kingdom of Corea, during 
the Han dynasty (between 202 b. c. and 25 a. d.), and named it after himself. 
(" Vocab. of Chinese Prop. Names," p. 17.) 

II This is a term applied to five mountains in China, the easternmost one being 
the T'ai Mountain, in Shan-tung, mentioned a little farther on. (See "Williams'a: 
Diet., p. 1117.) 



646 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and below it many ailantus-trees. Loh * River is found here, a 
stream flowing easterly into a marsh, and in it there are many 
gems and much gold. 

9. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Wolf Mount- 
ain is to be found. Upon this there is no grass and there are 
no trees, and below it there is much water (or there are many 
streams), in which there are many kan-tsz' fish. [These are not 
fully described.] They have wild animals, which look like the 
(quadrumana, called) kw a-fu, but they have hair like that of 
swine, and their voice is like an expiration of the breath. When 
these are seen, then heaven sends down great rains. 

10. And It says that, three hundred li to the south. Lone 
Mountain is found. Upon this there are many gems and much 
gold, and below it many beautiful stones. Moh-t u (Muddy) 
River is found here, a stream flowing southeasterly into a mighty 
flood, in which there are many T'iao-yung. These look like yel- 
low serpents with fish's fins. They go out and in. They are 
bright (or smooth). When these are seen, then that region is 
subject to great drought. 

11. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, T'ai f 
(Bald) Mountain is found. [Then the mountain was called the 
Eastern Yoh or T'ai-tsung, which is now called T ai Mountain. 
It is in the northwestern part of Fung-kao district, and the dis- 
tance from the foot of the mountain to its summit is forty-eight 
li and three hundred paces.] Upon this there are many gems, 
and below it there is much gold. Wild animals are found here 
which look like sucking pigs, but they have pearls. They 
are called tung-tung, their name being given them in imita- 
tion of their cry. The IIwan J River is found here, a stream 
flowing easterly into a river (or into the river, i.e., the Yang- 
Tsz' River),* [One authority says that it flows into the sea,] 
In this there are many water-gems (quartz crystals). 

* This is the name of a river near the city of Tsi-nan in the north of Shan- 
tung, (Williams's Diet., p. 554.) 

f This is the high peak in T'ai-ngan fu, in Shan-tung. (See Williams's Diet., 
p, 848.) 

% There is a district known as the Hwan district, among the mountains in 
the east of Kan-stjh, on a branch of tlie River King, (See Williams's Diet., p. 
245.) There are several rivers in China named Kino (Williams's Diet., p. 405), 
and the " Vocab. of Chin. Prop, Names " (p. 22) states that the name is applied to 
the Yang-tsz' River for a part of its length. * See Williams's Diet., p. 362. 



CHINESE '^ CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 647 

12. And it says that, three hundred U to the south, Bamboo 
Mountain is found, bordering on a river (or the river). [One 
authority says that it is on the shore— or that it is at the bound- 
ary-line.] There is no grass or trees, but there are many green- 
jasper and green-jade stones. The Km* River (or water im- 
peded in its course by rocks) is found here, a stream flowing 
southeasterly into Ts u-tak River (or body of water). In this 
(country) there is a great abundance of dye-plants. 

13. The first section of the " Classic of the Eastern Mount- 
ains " thus gives the entire distance along the twelve mountains, 
from SuH-CHU Mountain to Bamboo Mountain, as three thousand 
six hundred li. Their gods all have human bodies and dragons' 
heads. When they are offered a sacrifice of animals having hair, 
a dog is used. In other sacrifices the blood of a fish is used to be- 
smear the things offered. [To use blood in besmearing the things 
offered in sacrifice is called " ni." Kung-yang's " Chronicles " 
say that in offering sacrifices of creatures having flesh and blood, 
to the god of the land, and of grain, they besmear with blood the 
being that is sacrificed. The name of this species of sacrifice is 
pronounced " ni."] 

1. The beo-inning of the second section of the "Eastern Clas- 
sic " says that K ung-sang Mountain (or the Mountain of the 
Empty Mulberry-Trees) on the northern side adjoins the Shih 
River. [This mountain rises from the Kin-seh Forest (the For- 
est of Lutes and Lyres)— see the book called " Cheu-li."] On 
the eastern side (it adjoins the states of) Tsu f and Wu ; X on the 
southern side a number of sandy mounds, and on the western side 

* A country to the south of Fu-nan, whose people usurped the kingdom of 
Fu-NAN, was called the Km country. (See " Vocab. Chin. Prop. Names," p. 21.) 

f TsiJ is the name of an afHuent of the Yang-tsz' River, west of K'ing-chac 
FU, in Hc-PEH ; a branch of the river Han, and the name of an ancient district 
near their basins, now the extreme south of Shkn-si in Han-chung fu ; also a 
branch of the River Wei in Western Shen-si, which it joins near Lin-tcng hien. 
(Williams's Diet., p. 1009.) 

X Wu was the eastern of the " Three States," a. d. 250, comprising Cheh-kiang, 
and extending north and west. (Williams's Diet., p. 1060.) Wu, in Confucius's 
time, included the north of Cheh-kiang (IIu-chau, Yen-chau, and Kia-hing-chau) 
Province, and the southern part of Kiang-su. In the triarchy of the "Three 
States" it included the San-kiang Provinces, or 61 prefectures. The kingdom 
of Wu was merged into that of the conciuering state of Yueh in the same prov- 
inces. (" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," p. 62.) 



648 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the Mm (or Muddy) Marsh. Here there are wild animals which 
look like cattle, but which are striped like tigers. Their voices 
resemble the sound of a person stretching and yawning. [Per- 
haps rather the sound of one moaning.] These are named 
LING-LING, and this name is an imitation of their cry. When 
these are seen, then heaven sends down great rains. 

2. And it says that, six hundred li to the south, Ts'ao-chi * 
Mountain is found. Below this there are many paper-mulberry 
trees, but there is no water (or river). There are many birds and 
wild animals. 

3. And it says that, four hundred U to the southwest, Yih- 
KAO f Mountain is found. Upon this there are many gems and 
much gold, and below it there is much white plaster-rock. The 
YiH-KAO River is found here, a stream flowing easterly to the 
KiH-NiJ I River. In this there are many clams with pearly 
shells. [These are clams or mussels with pearly shells, as beauti- 
ful as gems, these pearly shells belonging to a species of mussel 
called SHAN-PAN.] 

4. And thence going to the south, five hundred li by water, 
and three hundred li over shifting sands, * one end of the Koh 
(or Bean) Mountains is reached. There is no grass and there are 
no trees here, but there are many smooth whetstones. 

5. And it says that, three hundred and eighty li to the south, 
the other end of the Bean Mountains is found. There is no grass 
and there are no trees here. The Li || River is found here, a 
stream flowing easterly into the Yii Marsh. In it there are 
many chu-p'ieh fish (or water-animals). These look like lungs, 
but have eyes, and six feet, and they have pearls. They taste 

* Ts'ao was a gmall feudal state, conferred on a brother of Wu-wang, b. c. 
1122 ; it had a separate existence under fifteen rulers, from b. c. 156 to 486, when 
it was annexed by Sung ; its capital was in the present Tsaocheu fu, in the south- 
west of Shan-tcng, along the Yellow River. (Williams's Diet., p. 955.) 

\ YiH is the name of a hill in Ts'ao-hien in Shan-tung, and of another in Pei- 
HiEN, in the north of Kiang-su. (Williams's Diet., p. 1094.) 

X The character Kih used here means " water impeded in its course by rocks," 
and is used as the name of one of the rivers mentioned in the preceding section. 
The character Ntj used here means a woman. 

* The term " shifting sand " is applied to quicksands, and in the " Book of 
Records " is applied to the Gobi Desert. (Williams's Diet., p. 730.) 

II The Li River is one of the affluents of the Tung-ting Lake, which drains the 
northwestern portion of Hu-nan. (Williams's Diet., p. 520.) 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 649 

sour, but pleasant, and are eaten without producing sickness. 
[They do not cause diseases at any time. Ltr-SHi's edition of 
the book of Confucius, called " Spring and Autumn," says that 
the Li River contains fish called chu-pieh, which have six feet, 
and which are beautiful as the "vermilion" fish.] 

6. And it says that, three hundred and eighty U to the south, 
Ytr-N"GO Mountain (or an excessively high peak) is found. Upon 
this there are many japonica-trees and jAN-trees, and below it 
there is much prickly succory. The TsAH-Ytf River is found 
here, a stream flowing easterly into the Yellow River. Here 
there are wild beasts which look like rabbits, but which have a 
crow's bill, an owl's eyes, and a serpent's tail. When they see 
a man, they pretend to sleep. They are called CHiu-Yti, this 
sound being an imitation of their cry. When these are seen, 
grasshoppers or locusts cause great destruction. [Grasshoppers 
are a species of locusts. It says that they ruin the herbage. 
Their name is pronounced chung.] 

7. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Tu-fu 
Mountain is found. There is no grass and there are no trees 
here, but there is much water (or there are many streams). 

8. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Kang * 
Mountain is found. There is no grass and there are no trees 
here, but there is much water, and there are many green-jade 
stones (or there are many water-jade stones). [These are a spe- 
cies of water-gems — i. e., rock crystals.] There are many great 
serpents, and there are also wild beasts which look like foxes, but 
which have fish's fins. These are named CHU-Jtf, and derive 
their name from their cry. When these are seen, the country 
has reason to fear disasters. 

9. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Lu-k'i f 
Mountain is found. There is no vegetation, and there are no trees, 
but there are many stones and much sand. . The Sand River is 
found here, a stream flowing southerly into the Ch'an J River 

* Kanq was the name of the capital of the empire of the Shang period, an- 
swering to the present P'ing-yangfu (Shan-si). (" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," 
p. 17.) 

f A wild tribe that anciently occupied some parts of IIu-peh was called Lr. 
(Williams's Diet., p. 554.) 

X There is a river of this name in Han-chung fu iu Shan-si, a branch of the 
river Han. (Williams's Diet., p. 21.) 



g50 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

(or into a limpid river). In this there are many li pelicans ; 
these look like ducks, but have men's legs. They derive their 
name from their cry. When these are seen, then the country will 
see great literary achievements. [These pelicans have long legs, 
vrhich somewhat resemble human shanks.] 

10. And it says that, three hundred and eighty li to the south, 
Ku-SHE Mountain is found. There is no grass and there are no 
trees there, but there is much water (or there are many streams). 

11. And it says that, going to the south, three hundred li by 
water and one hundred li over shifting sand, the Northern Ku- 
SHE Mountain is found. There is no grass and there are no 
trees there, but there are many stones. 

12. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Southern 
Ku-SHE Mountain is found. There is no grass, and there are no 
trees there, but there is much water (or there are many streams 
there). 

13. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Green- 
jade-stone Mountain is found. There is no grass here, but there 
are many trees. Many great serpents are found here, and there 
are also many green-jade stones and quartz crystals. 

14. And it says that, five hundred li to the south, Wei-siii * 
Mountain is found. There is no grass, and there are no trees 
here, but there are many gems and much gold. YuEisr f River 
is found here, a stream flowing easterly into Sand Marsh (or 
into a sandy marsh). [One authority states that the name of the 
mountain is pronounced Kiah-shi instead of Wei-shi.] 

15. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Ku-fung 
Mountain is found. There is no grass, and there are no trees 
here, but there are many gems and much gold. Wild beasts are 
found here which look like foxes, but which have wings (or 
fins). Their voice sounds like that of a wild goose, and they 
are called pi-pi. When these are seen, then heaven sends down 
a great drought. 

16. And it says that, five hundred li to the south, Fu-li J 

* Wei-tang was the name during the middle period of the Ming dynasty of the 
province now called Yang-chau fu. (" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," p. 61.) 

f The term " Middle Yden " at first denoted Ho-nan, but now means all China. 
(Williams's Diet., p. 1133.) 

X A large department in the northwest of Yun-nan, through which the Yanq- 
Tsz' River flows, is called the Li River District. (Williams's Diet., p. 524.) 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 651 

Mountain is found. Upon this there are many gems and much 
gold, and, below it, many lancet-stones. They have wild beasts 
which look like foxes, but which have nine tails and nine heads, 
and tigers' claws. They are called lung-chih. Their voice is 
like that of an infant child, and they eat men. 

17. And it says that, five hundred li to the south, Yin Mount- 
ain is found. To the south the Yin River is to be seen, and to 
the north the Hu * Marsh (or lakes and marshes). Here they 
have wild beasts which look like horses, but they have sheep's 
eyes, four horns, and cattle tails. Their voice is like the howl 
of a dog, and they are called yiu-yiu. When these are seen, the 
country will be visited by many crafty foreigners. They have 
birds which look like ducks, but they have rats' tails, and can 
climb trees. They are called chie-keu. When these are seen, 
the country will have much sickness. 

18. The second section of the " Classic of the Eastern Mount- 
ains" thus gives the entire distance along the seventeen mount- 
ains, from KVng-sang Mountain to Yin Mountain, as six thousand 
six hundred and forty U. Their gods all have wild beasts' bodies, 
but human faces. They bear the koh f fish. [With a species of 
stags' or deers' horns they catch (or hold) the koh fishes.] 
When they are offered a sacrifice of living beings having hair or 
feathers, a fowl is used. When the people pray to them for off- 
spring, they retire to a screened place. 

1, The beginning of the third section of the "Eastern Classic" 
says that Shi-hu I Mountain on the north adjoins Siang Mount- 
ain, Upon it there are many gems and much gold, and below 
it there are many thorny plants. Here there are wild, beasts 
which look like elks, but which have fish eyes, and they are called 
WAN-Hu (or YUEN-Hu), deriving their name from their cry. 

2. And it says that, going to the south by water for eight 
hundred U, K'l * Mountain is found (or a mountain with two 

* Uc-KWANG is the old designation of Hu-peh and Hu-nan. (" Vocab. of Chin. 
Prop. Names," p. 12, and Williams's Diet., p. 222.) 

f For a description of the koh fish, see p. 653. 

X The term He is applied to the Mongols, Huns, and other tribes of Central 
Asia, and hence it is used for " foreign " or " Turkish." (Williams's Diet., p. 221.) 

* There is a state of this name in the present Fcno-tsiang fu, in the south- 
west of Shan-si, not far from the river Wei. (Williams's Diet., p. 345.) 



652 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

peaks). Upon this there are many peach-trees and plum-trees. 
There are also wild beasts and many tigers. 

3. And it says that, going to the south by water for five hun- 
dred U, Chu-keu Mountain is found. There are no trees or 
grass here, but there are many stones, and much sand. The 
distance around the mountain is one hundred li. There are 
many mei (or sleeping) fish here. [These mei fish are of excel- 
lent flavour.] 

4. And it says that, going to the south by water for seven 
hundred li, Middle Fu Mountain is found. Here there are no 
trees or grass, but there is much sand. 

5. And it says that, going to the east by water for one thou- 
sand li, Hu-SHE * Mountain is found. Here there are no trees or 
grass, but there are many stones and much sand. 

6. And it says that, going to the south by water for seven 
hundred li, Mang-tsz' (the Eldest Child) Mountain is found. 
Here there are many trees ; japonicas and t'ong trees, and also 
many peach-trees and plum-trees. In the grass there are many 
mushroom-rushes (or mushrooms and rushes, or kiitts" rushes). 
[These are not fully described. They are called kw'un.] They 
have wild beasts, and many elks or deers. The distance around 
the mountain is one hundred li. Upon it there is a flowing 
stream called Pih-tang (or the River of Clear Jade-stone). 
In this there are many sturgeons and mud-sturgeons. [These 
mud-sturgeons are a species of eel. They resemble sturgeons, 
but have a long body like an eel. One authority says that they 
are a species of herring.] 

7. And going to the south by water for five hundred li, and 
over shifting sand for five hundred //, a mountain is reached 
which is called K'i-chung Mountain, the distance around which is 
two hundred li. There is no grass and there are no trees here, but 
there are great serpents, and upon the mountain there are many 
precious stones. It has a body of water, the distance around 
which is forty U, all bubbling up and running off.f [Now, to the 

* The character He here used is the same as that used in the first paragraph 
of this section in the name Shi-hu, and the character she is the same as that used 
in the name Ku-she. 

f An affluent of the Yang-tsz' River, in the north of ITc-peh, is named Yitng, 
the character meaning " bubbling up and running off," and being the same that is 
used here. (Williams's Diet., p. 1148.) 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 653 

east of the Yellow River is the Fan * River, and in the Yin 
(Dark) District it has the Fun f River's Spring (or source). In 
this place the water rushes out, overflowing, bubbling up, and 
running rapidly. It is deep, and it can not be restrained. This 
is of the same class as the water above referred to.] This is 
called Shan-tseh (or the Deep Marsh). In it there are great 
tortoises. [They have beaks like the common tortoise, the tor- 
toise being a great turtle ; the shell has variegated marks, like 
those of the precious tortoise-shell, but it is thinner.] Here there 
are fish (or water-animals) which look like carp, but which have 
six feet and a bird's tail. These are called Koh-koh fish, deriv- 
ing this name from an imitation of their cry. 

8. And it says that, going to the south by water for eight 
hundred li, Mei-yu Mountain [or Min-tsz'] Mountain is reached. 
Upon this there are many trees and much grass, and an abun- 
dance of gold and gems, and also much ocher. Here there are 
wild beasts which look like little cattle, but which have horses' 
tails, and which are called tsing-tsing, deriving their name from 
an imitation of their cry. 

9. And going to the south by water for five hundred U, and 
over shifting sand for three hundred U, "Wu-kao (or Not Lofty) 
Mountain is reached. Here the Yiu (Young) Sea may be seen. 
[This is now called the " Little Sea." Hwai-nan-tz' J says that 
the great island of the Eastern Region is called the "Little Sea."] 
To the east the Fu-tree may be seen [or Fu-sang], There is 
no grass and there are no trees here, and much wind is found 
upon the mountain. The distance around it is a hundred li. 

10. The third section of the " Eastern Classic " thus gives the 
entire distance along the nine mountains, from Shi-hu Mountain 
to Wu-KAO Mountain, as six thousand eight hundred li. Their 
gods all have human bodies and sheep's horns. When a sacrifice 
is offered to them, a ram is used. They use millet for food. 
When these gods are seen, then wind, rain, and floods cause ruin. 

1. The beginning of the fourth section of the " Eastern 
Classic " says that the Northern Hag Mountain slopes down to the 

* The Fan River is the chief river of Shan-si, which joins the Yellow River 
at Lung-man. {Williams's Diet., p. 130.) 

f Fun is the old name of a stream in Pu-cheu fu in the southwest of Shan-8I, 
whose headwaters spout up as a fountain. (Vi'illiams's Diet., p. 132.) 

X For note regarding IIwai-nan-tz', see page 47. 



654 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

North Sea.* It has trees which look like aspens, but which have 
red flowers. The fruit is like the jujube, but it has no pit. It 
tastes sour, but delicious. It is eaten without causing any ill 
results. The Shih River (or drinkable water) is found here, a 
stream that flows northeasterly into the sea. Here there are 
wild animals which look like wolves, but which have red heads 
and rats' eyes. Their voices sound like those of sucking pigs, 
and they are called Hieh-tsij. They eat men. There are birds 
here which look like domestic fowls, but they have white heads, 
rats' legs, and tigers' claws. They are called kwei [or k'i] birds, 
and they eat men. 

2. And it says that, three hundred li to the south, Mao 
Mountain is found. Here there are no trees and no grass. The 
Ts ang-t'i River is found here, a stream flowing westerly into 
the Chen River (or into an extensive body of water). In this 
there are many siu fish. [These are shrimps, or the eels in- 
dicated by the character ts'iu, and possibly the character siu 
was then pronounced the same as ts'iu.] These look like the 
carp, but have a larger head. Those who eat them have no 
swellings. 

3. And it says that, three hundred and twenty li to the south, , 
the Eastern Shi Mountain is found. Upon this there are many 
green gems. Here there are trees which look like aspens, but 
which have red veins. Their sap is like blood, and they have 
no fruit. These are called k'i. They can break horses by its 
use [i. e. , by rubbing them with this sap, horses become tame 
and gentle]. Clear River f is found here, a stream flowing north- 
easterly into the sea. In this there are many delicious cowries 
and many cuttle-fish. These look like a goby, and have only one 
head with ten bodies. They smell like sedge-grass or a jungle. 
Those who eat them have no asthma. [It says that they cure 
the disease which consists of a difficulty in breathing.] 

4. And it says that, three hundred U to the southeast, Nu- 
CHiNG Mountain is found. Upon this there are no trees, grass, or 
stones. Kao (Rich, Fertilizing) River is found here, a stream 
flowing westerly into Lih (Cauldron) River. In this there are 

* The " North Sea " is a name given by the Chinese to the Gulf of Peh-chih-li, 
but usually assigned in foreign works to Lake Baikal, in Irkutsk. (" Vocab. of 
Chin. Prop. Names," p. 39.) 

f This is an old name of a stream in Ua-NAN. (Williams's Diet,, p. 1034.) 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUKTAINS AND SEAS." 655 

many thin fish which look like herring, but have only one eye. 
Their voice sounds like vomiting [i. e., like the sound of a man 
retching and vomiting]. When these are seen, then heaven sends 
down a great drought. 

5. And it says that, two hundred li to the southeast, the K'in 
(Imperial or Majestic) Mountain is found. Here there are many 
gems and much gold, but no stones. The Shi River is found 
here, a stream flowing northerly into Kao * marsh. In this there 
are many eels and many beautiful cowrie-shells. Here there are 
wild animals which look like sucking pigs, but which have tusks. 
These are called tang-k'ang, deriving their name from their cry. 
When these are seen, then heaven causes the earth to produce 
much grain. 

6. And it says that, two hundred li to the southeast, Tsz'-t'ung 
Mountain is found. Tsz'-t'ung River is found here, a stream flow- 
ing westerly into Yij-jij Marsh. In this there are many hwah f 
fish. These look like fish, but have birds' wings. They go out 
and in. They are bright. Their voices sound like those of 
the YUEX-YANG.J When these are seen, then heaven sends down 
a great drought. 

7. And it says that, two hundred li to the northeast. Yen 
(Sharp-pointed) Mountain is found. Here there are many pre- 
cious stones and much gold. There are also wild beasts which 
look like swine, but which have men's faces and yellow bodies, 
but red tails. These are called hoh-tij. Their voices sound 
like that of an infant child. These wild animals eat men, and 
eat vermin and serpents. When these are seen, then heaven 
sends down great rains. 

* The character Kao used here is not the same as that used in the name of the 
Kao River, mentioned in the last paragraph, but is the same as that used in the 
name of the Wu-kao Mountain, in the ninth paragraph of the third section of the 
fourth book. 

f Hwah, a reptile with four feet, found in marshes, resembling a snake, and 
having wings, which feeds on fish. Probably the basilisk lizard. (Williams's 
Diet., p. 242.) 

X The YUEN-YANG is an aquatic bird, frequenting ponds and marshes ; it is of 
the size and form of the wild duck, but its beak, instead of being flat, is round ; 
its red head is sprinkled with white, its tail is black, and the rest of its plumage 
a fine purple ; its cry is exceedingly loud and mournful, not the song of a bird, 
but a sort of deep, prolonged sigh, resembling the plaintive tones of a man under 
Buffering. 1^^* 



650 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

8. And it says that, two hundred U to the east, T'ai * (Im- 
mense) Mountain is found. Upon it there are many precious 
stones and much gold, and there are also many wax-trees. [These 
wax-trees do not shed their leaves in winter.] Here there are 
wild animals which look like cattle, but which have a white head, 
one eye, and a serpent's tail. They are called fei. When they go 
upon the water they dry it up, and when they go upon the grass 
they kill it. When these are seen, then heaven sends down a 
great pestilence. [It says that its body is full of a poisonous 
principle. The book called " K'i-kin " says that it is a locust 
or cricket called k'iung. Its body looks harmless, but it causes 
the veins to wither and dry uj), being more poisonous than the 
CHAN.f All creatures fear it, and wish to keep at a great dis- 
tance from it.] The Keu River is found here, a stream flowing 
northerly into the Lao J River. In this are many fish. 

9. The fourth section of the " Eastern Classic " thus gives the 
entire distance along the eight mountains, from Hag Mountain 
to T'ai Mountain, as one thousand seven hundred and twenty li. 

10. The above record of the " Classic of the Eastern Mount- 
ains " thus gives the distance along these forty-six mountains as 
eighteen thousand eight hundred and sixty li. 

The Ninth Book of the Classic of Mountains and Seas. 

the classic of the eegions beyond the easteen sea. 

In regard to the Regions beyond the Sea, from its Southeast 
Corner to its Northeast Corner. 

1. The Cha Hill. [Pronounced Cha or perhaps Fah.] It is 
said that this country produces i gems, green horses, shi-jtih, 
common willows, delicious cherries, sweet flowers, and excellent 
fruits. It is in the Eastern Sea, between two mountains. Upon 
the hill there are lofty trees. One authority says that its name is 

* This is not the same character as that used for the name of the T'ai Mountain 
formerly mentioned. 

f The Chinese describe the chak as a bird like the secretary-falcon, with a long 
black neck and red bill ; it eats snakes, and is supposed to be so noxious that 
fish die where it drinks, the grass around its nest withers, and its feathers steeped 
in spirits make a virulent poison. (Williams's Diet., p. 18.) 

X The term Lao appears in the twelfth paragraph of the ninth book as the 
name of the " Distressed " People's Country. 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 657 

Cha-kiu, and one says that the Country of a Hundred Fruits lies 
east of Yao's * burial-place . 

2. The Great Men's Country is north of this. Because the 
men are great they sit and seize passing boats. One authority 
says that this country is north of Cha-kiu. 

3. She-pi's Body is north of this. [This is the name of a 
god.] He has a wild animal's body and a man's face. He has 
large ears, and for ear-ornaments has two green serpents [i. e., 
he has ear-ornaments like serpents strung in bis ears]. One 
authority says that Kan-tu's Body lies north of the Great Men's 
Country. 

4. The Country of Refined Gentlemen lies north of this. 
They have clothing, caps, sashes, and swords. They eat wild 
beasts, and have two great tigers, one ©n each side. They are 
very gentle, and do not quarrel. They have fragrant plants. 
[Perhaps "clay" should be read instead of "fragrant plants."] 
They have a flowering-plant which produces blossoms in the 
morning which die in the evening. One authority says that it 
is north of Kan-tu's Body. 

5. HuNG-HUNG lies north of this. They all have two heads. 
[The name is pronounced the same as that of the character hung, 
which means the rainbow.] One authority says that it is north 
of the Country of Refined Gentlemen. 

6. The god of the Valley of the Manifestation of the Dawn 
(Chao-yaxg) f is called Tien-wu. He is the god of the water. 
He dwells north of Hung-hung, between two bodies of water. 
When he appears as a wild animal he has eight heads with 
human faces, eight legs, and eight tails, and is all green and yel- 
low. [The " Classic of the Great Eastern Waste " says he has 
ten tails.] 

7. The Green Hills Country is situated north of this. [The 
people eat all kinds of grain, and have silken clothing.] Here 
there are foxes with four legs and eight tails. One authority 
says that it is situated north of the " Manifestation of the Dawn." 
[Kih-kiun's " Bamboo Book " says that P'oh-shu-tsz' went on a 
military expedition in the Eastern Sea for fully three years, and 

* Yao was a celebrated sovereign, who is said to have reigned one hundred and 
three years, from b. c. 2357 to b. c. 2255. 

f Chao-sien (the Brightness of the Dawn) is the Chinese ofiBcial name of Corea. 
(" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," p. 3.) 
42 



658 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

found a fox with nine tails, which, perhaps, was a species of the 
fox above described.] 

8. The sovereign ordered Shu-hai to walk from the farthest 
limit of the East to the farthest limit of the West, five hundred 
thousand and ten times ten thousand paces [Shu-hai was a 
dauntless traveler] and nine thousand eight hundred paces. Shu- 
hai grasped an abacus in his right hand and with his left hand 
he pointed to the north of the Beautiful Green Hills. One 
authority says that it was the emperor Ytj * who commanded 
Shu-hai ; one says that the distance was five hundred thousand, 
ten times ten thousand, nine thousand and eight hundred paces. 
[The poem Ts'ang-shan-wu says that heaven and earth, from east 
to west, are three hundred and thirty-three thousand li, and from 
south to north, two hundred and one thousand five hundred li. 
To inspect heaven and earth, go one hundred and fifty thousand 

9. The Black-Teeth Country lies north of this. [The "His- 
tory of the Eastern Barbarians " \ says that forty li I and more 
east of Japan there is a country called the Naked People's Coun- 
try, and that southeast of this lies the Black-Teeth Country. A 
ship can reach it by sailing for one year. The " Account of Strange 
Things " says that the Western Butchers dye their teeth and 
are like these people.] The people are black, and eat rice. They 
also eat serpents, some red and some green. [One authority men- 
tions only the green serpents.] It is very great. One authority 
says that it is north of (the country of) Shu-hai, and has peo- 
ple with black hands, who eat rice, and who use serpents, one ser- 
pent being red. Below it is the Warm Springs (T ang) * Ravine. 
[In the ravine there is hot water.] Above Warm Springs Ra- 
vine is Fu-SANG [i. e., the fu-sang tree, or the useful mulberry- 

* The Great YiJ reigned about twenty-two hundred years before the Christian 
era. (See Summer's "Handbook of the Chin. Lang.," part i, p. 205.) 

f By the " Eastern Barbarians" the Chinese mean either the Coreans'"^^ or 
else the uncivilized races of Eastern Japan.'"* 

X Here the character " thousand " has probably been changed to "ten" between 
" four" and " ^j." The account that is given can not be applied to a country only 
forty li (some thirteen miles) from Japan. Ma Twan-lin states that the distance 
is four thousand li and that the direction is to the south. (See d'Hervey's "Eth- 
nography," p. 410.) 

^ There is a river named T'ang in the southwest of Chih-li. (Williams's 
Diet, p. 860.) 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAmS AND SEAS." 659 

tree]. The place where the ten suns bathe lies north of the 
Black-Teeth (Country). In the water there is a large tree having 
nine suns in its lower branches and one sun in its upper branches. 
[Chwang-cheu * says that formerly these ten suns rose all to- 
gether, and the grass and trees were burned and withered. Hwai- 
NAN-Tz' says that (the emperor) Yagj then commanded (the 
prince) I to shoot nine of the ten suns, and the bird in the suns, 
until dead. The " Dissipation of Sorrows " says in reference to it 
that 1 1 brought the sun-bird * to an end, and that it dropped some 
of its feathers, and that I took them home and kept them. The 
Ching-mu Classic says that formerly this I shot skillfully, and 
brought these ten suns to an end. Kih-kiun's " Bamboo Book " 
says that when Yin-kiah ascended the throne and dwelt at Si-ho 
there were strange prodigies. Ten suns rose and shone together. 
This is a wonder of nature, but there is proof of it. Tradition 
says that there were ten suns in the sky, the number of suns being 
ten. This account says that nine suns dwell in the lower branches 
and one sun in the upper branches. The " Classic of the Great 
Waste " says that when one sun sets, another sun rises and lights 
heaven and earth, and, although there are ten suns, they rise alter- 
nately, and so revolve and shine ; but at the time referred to they 
all rose together, and so heaven sent down supernatural calami- 
ties. Therefore I, having asked forYAo's instructions, and thor- 
oughly understanding his heart's desire, looked up to heaven, and 
pulled the bow-string, and nine suns retired and concealed them- 
selves. ... If we examine into this in a common-sense way we find 
that it is not reasonable, but if we investigate the principles of des- 
tiny we find that nothing is impossible. You, who stand by and 
see ought to try to comprehend this mystery. Those things which 
relate to the mysterious and obscure are hard to understand, but 
nevertheless they go on their course without obstruction.] Yij- 

* Chwang-chec may possibly be Chwang-tsz', one of the most eminent of the 
Chinese writers of antiquity ; he flourished about b. c. 368. (Summer's " Hand- 
book," part ii, p. 7.) 

f Yao was a celebrated sovereign, said to have reigned b. c. 2357 to 2255. 
(Williams's Diet., p. 1076.) 

X I, the prince of KiiJXG, was a famous rebel in the Hia dynasty, a mighty 
archer, who drove T'ai-k'axg beyond the Yellow River, about b. c. 2169, and kept 
the power till his death. (Williams's Diet., p. 283.) 

* Wild geese are sometimes called " sun-birds." (See Legge's " Sacred Books 
of China," part i, p. 67.) 



660 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

SHi's Concubine dwells north of this. [ YiJ-SHi is the same as 
P'iNG-i, the God of Rain.] He, as a man, is black, and in each 
of his hands he holds a serpent. In his left ear there is a green 
serpent, and in his right ear a red serpent. One authority says 
that he dwells north of (the country of) the Ten Suns, that as a 
man he has a black body and a human face, and that each (hand) 
holds a tortoise. 

10. The Black-Hip Country lies north of this. [So called be- 
cause the people are all black below the waist.] These people 
make clothing from fish or water-animals — [i. e., they make cloth- 
ing from the skins of fish — or water-animals]. They eat gulls. 
[Gulls are water-birds. Their name is pronounced tiu.] They 
use two birds, carrying them in their arms. One authority says 
that this lies north of Yti-SHi's Concubine. 

11. The Hairy People's Country lies north of this, and has 
people upon whose bodies hair grows. [At the present time, by 
leaving the region of the Lin Sea, and going two thousand li to 
the southeast, the place of residence of the Hairy People is found 
upon the Great Loh Island.] Upon this island there are people 
with short, small faces, and with their bodies entirely covered 
with hair, like a hog or a moose. They live in caves, and have 
no clothing or garments. [In the reign of the Ts'in dynasty in 
the fourth year of the period distinguished by the appellation 
YUNG-KiA (or " Perpetual Excellence " — i. e., in the year 310 
A.D.) an officer named Tai, having charge of the salt at Wu- 
KiEN, found upon the sea-shore a boat containing men and 
women, four people in all. These all looked alike and spoke a 
language which was not intelligible. They were sent to the 
prime-minister's palace, but before they had reached it they 
all died on the way, except only one. The ruler gave him a 
wife, who bore children to him. Going to and coming from 
the market and wells, he advanced slowly in acquiring the lan- 
guage. His native place was the Hairy People's Country. The 
" Classic of the Great Waste " says that the Hairy Tribe eat a 
species of millet for food.] One authority says that this country 
is north of the Black-Hip Country. 

12. The Distressed (Lao *) People's Country lies north of this. 
It has people who are black [and who for food eat the fruits of 

* See the reference to the River Lao in the eighth paragraph of the fourth sec- 
tion of the fourth book. 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 661 

trees and plants ; they have a bird with two heads]. Perhaps 
the name should be read " the Kiao * People," instead of the Dis- 
tressed (or Lao) People. One authority says that it lies north 
of the Hairy People, and has people having their face, eyes, 
hands, and feet entirely black. 

13. The Keu-wang of the Eastern Regions has a bird's 
body,f and a human face, and he rides upon two dragons. [He 
is the God of Wood, and has a square face, and wears plain ap- 
parel. MoH-Tsz' says that formerly, in the Ts'in dynasty, Muh- 
KiTNG was of illustrious virtue. The Supreme Ruler caused 
K'eu-wang to lengthen his life by nineteen years.] 

The Classic of Mountains and Seas. 

FOUETEENTH BOOK. 

The Classic of the Great Eastern Waste. 

1. The Great Canon beyond the Eastern Sea J [the poem 
called Ts'ang-shan-wu says that in the east there is a stream flow- 
ing in a bottomless ravine. It is supposed to be this caiion. The 
" Dissipation of Sorrows " calls it Kiang-shang's Great Canon] 
is Shao-hao's Country. [The emperor Shag-hag,* of the 
"Golden Heaven" family, gave it this designation.] Shao- 
hao's Descendant, the emperor Chwen-suh |1 [of whom no fur- 
ther description is given], left there his lute and lyre. [It says 
that his lute and lyre are in this caiion,] It has a beautiful 
mountain, from which there flows a delightful spring, producing 
a charming gulf. [The water accumulates and so forms a gulf.] 

2. In the southeastern corner of the Great Eastern Waste 
there is a mountain called the Pi-mu-ti Hill. 

3. In the Great Waste beyond the Eastern Sea there is a 
mountain which by hyperbole is called " the Place where the Sun 
and Moon Rise." It has rolling valleys and mountains. This is 

* The term Kiao sect is applied to the Mohammedans. ("Vocab. of Chin. 
Prop. Names," p. 20.) 

t The account of a being or beings with a bird's body and a human face may 
have arisen from the fact that the Aleutian islanders '"'' dressed in the skins 
of birds.'"8 

X The " Eastern Sea " is the term applied to the sea off the southeast coast of 
China. (" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," p. 58.) 

« Who reigned about 2500 b. c. (Summer's " Handbook," p. 206.) 
II The successor of Shao-hao. (Williams's Diet., p. 117.) 



QQ2 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the Great Men's Country. [In the reign of the Ts'm dynasty, in 
the second year of the period distinguished by the designation 
YUNG-KiA (" Perpetual Excellence," i. e., in 308 a. d.), there were 
ducks collected in Ngao-po, twenty li south of the district of 
Shi-ngan. a man by the name of Cheu-fu-chang picked up a 
wooden arrow with an iron point, which was six feet * and a half 
long. Reckoning from the length of the arrow, the shooter 
must have been a rod f and five or six feet tall. The Coreans 
say that formerly some people from the kingdom of Japan, 
who encountered bad weather upon a voyage, were blown across 
the " Great Sea," J and beyond it they discovered a country 
where the people were all a rod tall, and moreover, in their 
form and appearance, they looked like Mongols. They were tall 
savages of a foreign tribe. The arrow came from this coun- 
try. The Wai-chwen says that the shortest of the Scorched 
Pigmy * People were only three feet high, and the tallest of 
these did not exceed ten rods. In Ho-tu's "Album of Gems" 
it is said that ninety thousand li north of the Kwun-lun (Range 
of Mountains) the Lung-poh Country is found, where the peo- 
ple are thirty rods tall, and live for eighteen thousand years, 
but they then die. East of the Kwun-lun (Mountains) || Ta- 
TSiN-^ is found. The people are ten rods tall, and all wear plain 
garments. Ten times ten thousand li to the east the country of 
the T'lAO People is found. They are thirty rods and five feet 
tall. East of this, ten times ten thousand li, is the Central Tsin 
Country, whose people are one rod tall. The Kuh-liang His- 
tory says that the body of a tall savage, measured crosswise, 
covered nine Chinese acres. When riding, his head and shoul- 
ders reached above the cross-bar of the chariot. This man must 
therefore have been several rods tall. In the time of the Ts'in 

* The Chinese " foot " is equal to about fourteen of our inches. 
\ Of ten Chinese " feet." 

:j: The term " Great Sea " is loosely applied to the Pacific Ocean and the China 
Sea. (" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," p. 50.) 

* The character Yao, here translated " Pigmy," is applied to a nation of Pig- 
mies said to be three feet in height, called Yao-tao, found southwest of China ; the 
Negritos or Papuans of New Guinea may be intended. (Williams's Diet., p. 
1076.) 

II For an account of these Mountains, see Chapter XV of this book. 
^ The Roman Empire, or some portion of it. (Williams's Diet., p. 991 ; 
" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," p. 51.) 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 663 

dynasty a giant was seen in Lin-t ao * who was five rods tall, 
and his foot-prints were six feet long. If the above accounts 
can be considered to be true, then there is no limit to the height 
of these tall men.] It has the Great Men's Market, which is 
called " the Great Men's Mansion." [This is a mountain which 
is so named because of its resemblance to a large mansion. 
The Great Men collect near it at market-times, and hold a 
market upon and about it.] It has a great man crouching upon 
both of its sides. [Perhaps the character translated "crouch- 
ing " formerly meant " sitting erect." Chwang-tsz' f says that 
he sat in Hwui-k'iai.] It has a country of " Little People " 
who are* called the Tsing People. [The poem called Ts'ang- 
SHAN-wu says that the farthest region to the northeast is in- 
habited by people who are only nine inches high.] Its god has 
a human face and a wild beast's body, and he is called Li-ling's 
Body. 

4. There is also a mountain named Kueh, from which the 
Aspen River flows. 

5. There is also a Country of Plants, where millet is used for 
food. [It says that millet grows in this country. The name of 
the country is pronounced Wei.] They employ (or have) four 
(species of) birds (i. e., they have numerous varieties of birds) ; 
also tigers, panthers, brown bears, and grizzly bears. 

6. In the Great Waste there is a mountain called IIoh-hu. 
It is the place where the sun and moon rise. It has Chung- 
yung's Country. Ti-tsun (or the emperor Tsun) begat Chung- 
YUNG. The people of Chung-yung eat wild beasts and the fruits 
of trees. [In this country there are red trees with dark wood, 
which have delicious flowers and fruit. See Lti-sHi's edition of 
the work of Confucius called " Spring and Autumn,"] They 
use four birds (i. e., they have numerous species of birds), and 
also panthers, tigers, brown bears, and grizzly bears. 

7. There is also the Mountain of the Eastern Pass, and here 
is the "Country of Refined Gentlemen." These people have 
clothing, caps, sashes, and swords. [They have tigers and pan- 
thers, which are gentle and give way.] Here is the Country of 
the Presiding Spirits. Ti-tsun begat Yen-lung, who begat the 

* A former name of Min-cheu, in the north of Sz'-ch'uen, where a great goat 
nearly as large as a donkey is produced. (Williams's Diet., p. 869.) 

f A famous philosopher of the Cheu dynasty. (Williams's Diet., p. 112.) 



664 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

Presiding Spirits. The Presiding Spirits have offspring, but the 
pure-minded male has no wife, and the pure-minded female has no 
husband. [It says that these people are pure in their thoughts, 
and are not affected by passion, and do not mate, but that 
they conceive children with all purity, like white doves looking 
steadfastly into each other's eyes, each being affected by, the 
purity of the other.] They eat millet and wild beasts, and have 
numerous varieties of birds. Here is Ta-o Mountain (or the 
Mountain of the Great Ridge). 

8. In the Great Waste there is a mountain named Ming-sing 
(or the Bright Star). It is the place where the sun and moon 
rise. 

9. There is also the White People's Country, Ti-tsun begat 
Ti-HUNG, who begat the White People. The White People have 
no surnames. They eat millet, and have numerous varieties of 
birds, as well as tigers, panthers, brown bears, and grizzly bears. 
[And they have teams of yellow wild beasts, which they drive, 
using them in order to reach a great age.] 

10. There is also the Green Hills Country. Here there are 
foxes with nine tails. [When they are very little disturbed they 
come out (of their holes), and this is considered a good omen.] 
It has the Jeu-puh * (or Courteous Vassal) Country. They live 
in a country of luxuriant land. [It is luxuriant as if irrigated. 
The name is pronounced YiNG.f] It has the country of Black 
Teeth. [Their teeth are like lacquer.] Ti-tsun begat the Black 
Teeth. [As the teachings and example of the sage do not reach 
all regions, therefore in after ages his descendants differ in their 
pursuits and outward appearance. Every one says that those 
who are now living are his descendants ; but they surely can not 
be posterity which he himself begat.] The Kiang J tribe eat 
millet for food, and have numerous varieties of birds. Here is 
also the Hia-cheu * (Summer Island) Country, Here is also the 

* Jeu Country was an ancient principality on the coast of Shan-tttng. It is 
said in the annals of the Eastern Han to have belonged to Lang-ta kiun the 
present Ni-chau fit. 

f YiNG was the family surname of Tsin Chi Hwang-ti, derived from Shao- 
HAO, B. c. 2597. (Williams's Diet., p. 1107.) 

X Kiang was the surname of Shin-nung. (Williams's Diet., p. 362.) Shin- 
NUNG was an emperor who reigned about 2700 b. c, just before the Yellow Em- 
peror. (Summer's " Hand-book," i, p. 205.) 

* The terra Hia is the name of the dynasty which reigned from b. c. 2205 to 



CHINESE " CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 665 

Kai-yu * Country. It has a god with eight heads, with human 
faces, a tiger's body, and ten tails. He is called T'ien-wu. [He 
is the God of the Water.] 

11. In the Great Waste there is a mountain called Kuh-ling- 
yu-t'ien". It is at the farthest limit of the east with Li and 
Meu. [These are the names of three mountains.] At the place 
where the sun and moon rise [there is a god] called Cheh- 
TAN. In the Eastern Region he is called Cheh. The " coming 
wind" is called Chan. [It is not fully described where the 
Place of the Coming Wind is situated.] He dwells at the 
farthest limit of the east, and produces the eight winds. [It 
says that this man is able to regulate the proper times for the 
winds to come forth and return.] 

12. In an island of the Eastern Sea there is a god with a hu- 
man face and a bird's body, having two yellow serpents for ear-or- 
naments. [These serpents are passed through his ears.] He treads 
upon two yellow serpents, and is called Yu-kwoh. Hwang-ti be- 
gat Ytr-KWOH, and Yu-kwoh begat Yu-king. [Yu-king is the 
same as Yu-kiaiv^g.] Yu-kixg dwells in the North Sea, and Yij- 
KWOH dwells in the Eastern Sea. They are sea-gods. [They 
are each called the god of that particular sea over which they 
rule. One original authority reads Hao instead of Kwoh.] 

13. There is also the Chao-tao (Quaking) Mountain, where 
the Yung (Melting) River flows. Here there is a country called 
the Black -Hip Country. [From the hips down they are black like 
lacquer.] They have millet for food, and have numerous varieties 
of birds. Here is also the country of the Kw'un (Needy) Peo- 
ple, whose surname is Keu, who eat (these birds). Some say that 
King Hai held a bird in his two hands, and, when he had eaten its 
head. King Hai sent it to Yiu-i, Ho-poh, and Puh-nif [Ho-poh 
and Pun-Niu are both names and surnames — see Kih-kiun's 
" Bamboo Book "]. Yiu-i slew King Hai, and captured Puh-niu. 
[The " Bamboo Book " says that Hai, the son of the emperor Ym, 
went as a visitor to the house of Yiu-i, and committed adultery 
there. Therefore Yiu-i's sovereign, Min-ch'an, slew him, and 

1 706. The term " Cultivated Hia " is still used for China, denoting the country, not 
its government ; while Chu-Hia (all the Hias) for the same has become obsolete. 
(Williams's Diet., p. 184.) 

* The character Kai is used in the name of Kai-p'ixg hies, in Shin-king, a 
district town in FrNG-iiEN fu. (" Vocab. of Chin. Prop. Names," p. 16.) 



666 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

thus made an example of him. Therefore the Emperor Yin 
KiEii-ciiixG borrowed troops of Ho-poh, with which to punish 
Yiu-i, overthrow his country, and slay his sovereign Min-ch' an.] 
Ho pitied Yiu-i, and allowed him to leave the country secretly, 
and go to a region of wild beasts ; and because he ate the wild 
beasts, he was called a Yao man. [Yiu-i was originally a friend of 
Ho-POH, and a good scholar ; but because Kieh-Ching, who was 
then the emperor of the Ying Country, had a good and rightful 
reason for borrowing troops to punish crime, Ho-poh could not 
do otherwise than help to overthrow his country. It was be- 
cause he pitied Yiu-i that he allowed him to leave the country 
secretly. After he had left he became a Yao man.] The sover- 
eign Shun * begat Hi, and Hi begat the Yao (Quaking) People. 
In the sea there are two people. [These are the people to whom 
Yiu-i went.] They are called II^u-ciieu. [They are the same as 
NiJ-CHEu's Body. There is no certainty as to the time when, or 
the kind of being into which, she (Ntr-CHEu's Body) may be 
metamorphosed ; for at one time she walks on water, and at 
another time she vanishes into earth. There is no place which 
she could not reach if she desired to reach it. We hear also 
that the ways of the class of Fan-lis are similar to those of 
Nii-CHEu's Body.] Nii-CHEU has great crabs. The breadth is 
ten li. 

14. In the Great Waste there is a mountain called Yeh-tao- 
KitJN-Ti. Upon it is the Fu-tree, having a trunk of three hun- 
dred /«. Its leaves are like mustard. [It resembles a pillar rising 
to a great height, and its leaves are like mustard-greens.f ] It 
has a valley called the Warm Springs Valley. Above the Warm 
Springs Valley is the Fu-tree [i. e., Fu-sang lies above]. When 
one sun sets another sun rises. [It says that they alternate with 
each other.] They all contain a bird. [In them there is a two- 
footed bird.] Here there is a god with a human face, dogs' ears, 
and a wild beast's body. For ear-ornaments he has two green 
serpents. He is called She-pi's Body. They have birds varie- 
gated with all colours, Ti-tsun condescended to be their friend. 
Ti descended two high terraces (for worship) which were ruled 
by the variegated birds. J [It says that below the mountain were 

* A monarch who reigned b. c. 2255 to 2205. (Williams's Diet., p. 784.) 

I Sinapis. (See Williams's Diet, p. 360.) 

:J: It is a custom in some Chinese monasteries to feed a bird with a few grains 



CHINESE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 667 

Snirif's two high terraces for worship, and that the variegated 
birds ruled over them.] 

15. And in the Great Waste there is a mountain called I-t ien- 
su-MAN.* It is the place where the sun and moon were born, and 
here is the Huex (a pipe, a musical instrument) People's Coun- 
try. Here is also the K'l (Dark Gray) Mountain, the Yao 
(Quaking) Mountain, the Tsang Mountain, the Man-hu (or 
Household) Mountain, the Shixg (Fertile) Mountain, and the 
Tai Mountain. Here there are variegated birds. 

16. In the Eastern Waste there is a mountain called Hoh- 
MiNG-TsiJN-TsiH. This is the place where the sun and moon rise. 
There is also the Kih-tuxg Country, northeast beyond the sea. 
They had three blue (or green) horses, and three horses that 
were black with white spots, sweet flowers, yuex-yiu, i gems, 
three green (or blue) horses, and three black horses with white 
spots like eyes on their flesh, sweet flowers, delicious cherries, 
and numerous varieties of grain in this place. [It says that these 
are produced spontaneously.] 

17. There is also the country of Nu-hwo-yueh-mu, having 
a man called Yueis". In the northern regions they say that Yuen, 
who brings them the wind, is called Yen. [It is said that he has 
these two names.] He dwelt at the extreme eastern corner, for the 
sun and moon dwelt there. They did not have a uniform time 
for rising and setting, and he controlled them as to whether the 
time should be short or long. [It says that Yuen had the man- 
agement of the observations of the rising and setting of the sun 
and moon. He did not let them run out of order, and he knew 
the length of the days.] 

18. In the northeast comer of the Great Waste there is a 
mountain called Hiung-li-ti Hill. The Ying Dragon dwells at 
its extreme southern limit. [The Ying Dragon is a dragon hav- 
ing wings.] He killed Ch'i-yiu,! together with Kw'a-fu [Ch'i- 
Yiu was a soldier]. He could not ascend again. [The Yixg 
Dragon therefore dwells below the earth.] Formerly, when be- 
low, he was the occasion of dry weather [then it did not rain 

of rice just before the morning meal has commenced. '^^^ Some such custom may 
have given rise to this story. 

* StJ-MiN-TAH-LAH TAU is the island of Sumatra. (" Yocab. of Chin. Prop. 
Names," p. 49.) 

f Ch'i-yiu lived b. c. 2637. (Williams's Diet., p. G3.) 



668 AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 

above], but when the Ying Dragon made his appearance there 
was a very great rain. [The dragon that is in heaven now was 
produced by the vapour ascending from the Ying Dragon. This 
is the work of the mysterious and obscure, and man is not capa- 
ble of accomplishing it.] 

19. In the Eastern Sea is the Mountain (or Island) of the 
Flowing Stream, seven thousand li distant in the sea. Upon 
this there are wild beasts which look like cattle, with green (blue or 
hoary) bodies, but they have no horns, and only one foot. When 
they come out of or go into the water, then there is wind and 
rain. They are bright like the sun and moon, and their voice is 
like thunder. They are called kw'ei. The Yellow Emperor * 
obtained them and made drums of their skins, beating them 
with drum-sticks made from the bones of wild beasts. [The 
Thunder-beast is the God of Thunder. He has a man's face and 
a dragon's body. Pie drums his abdomen, beating it with drum- 
sticks.] The sound might be heard for five hundred li, terri- 
fying all beneath heaven. 

* The Yellow Emperor is said to have ruled 2597 b. c. (Summer's "Hand- 
book," i, p. 205.) 



CHAPTER XXXYL 

COMMENTS UPON THE "CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 

The oldest geography of the world — Article by M. Bazin, Sr. — Its divisions — 
Groups of mountains — Taoists of the fourth century — The spirits governing 
the earth — Extravagancies of the work — First mention of the book — The 
Familiar Discourses of Confucius — Thought to be apocryphal or corrupted — 
Tseu-hia — Sse-ma-ts'ien — Sse-ma-ching — Chao-shi — Wang-chong — Tso-sse — 
The " Book of Waters " — Chang-hoa — Consideration of the western and south- 
ern kingdoms — Summaries of the geography of Tu-yu — Lo-pi — Kia-ching-shi 
— Cheu-pang — Tsu-tse-yu — The Encyclopaedia of Tu-yeu — Conclusion of M. 
Bazin — The imperial academy of the Han-lin — The Shan Hai King read as a 
romance or pastime — Particularly by young men — Opinions of commenta- 
tors — Notes — Gaps or omissions — The " Bamboo Books " — Length of the work 
— No translation heretofore made — M. Burnouf's intention to translate it — 
Change of opinion among scholars as to its value — Monsters mentioned by 
other writers — Tacitus — Men clothed in skins — A river with eight mouths — 
The compass — The T'ien Wu : Lord of the Water — Seals, sea-lions, and sea- 
otters — The Islands of the Flowing Stream — Cuttle-fish — Birds with hairy 
legs — Serpents as ear-ornaments — The Shan Hai King a compilation of a 
number of distinct accounts — Regions mentioned twice or more — Description 
of Japan — The genii who once ruled the earth — The state of civilization — 
Tigers and bears — A poisonous insect — The Ravine of the Manifestation of 
the Dawn — The Hairy People — Fu-sang and the Black-Teeth Country — The 
Malay custom of blackening the teeth — The Philippine or Luzon Islands — 
The banana or plantain {pisang) — The "ten suns." 

The Shan Hai King, or Chinese " Classic of Mountains and 
Seas," extracts from which are translated in the last chapter, is 
not only claimed to be the most ancient geographical work which 
the Chinese possess, but is also thought by some to be the oldest 
geography of the world. "*^ It originally contained thirty-two 
books or divisions, but in the fifth century a. d. they were re- 
duced to eighteen.**^** 

M. Bazin, Sr., in 1839, contributed an article to the " Journal 
Asiatique " which contained translations of some fragments of 



670 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the work, and also gave an account of its history, and of the 
views regarding it held by Chinese scholars."' This article, 
somewhat condensed, is copied below : 

" The Shan Hai King, ' The Book of Mountains and Seas,' 
contains a fabulous description of the world which is, by some 
historians of the sect of the Taoists, attributed to the great Yu 
and to Pe-y, ministers of the emperor Shun (2255 b. c). 

" This cosmography, founded upon a system peculiar to China, 
and which has its origin in the religious traditions of the em- 
pire, is divided into eighteen books, which treat respectively of 
the mountains to the south, to the west, to the north, to the 
east, and of the central mountains ; of the regions beyond the 
sea to the south, to the west, to the north, and to the east ; of 
the regions on the nearer side of the sea to the south, to the 
west, to the north, and to the east ; of the eastern, southern, 
western, and northern portions of the great deserts ; and of the 
islands of the sea. 

" The authors of the cosmography hold that there are five 
principal groups of mountains upon the earth, being the groups 
of the south, west, north, east, and centre, respectively. From 
each of these groups, as a common point, great ranges of mount- 
ains proceed toward the south, the west, the north, and the 
east. All the rivers of the earth have their sources in these 
mountain ranges, which, for the greater part, are covered with 
the products of an extraordinary vegetation. Quadrupeds, birds, 
reptiles, and fabulous monsters with a tiger's claws and a leop- 
ard's tail, appertaining to the three hundred and sixty varieties 
of the Ki-lin, to the three hundred and sixty varieties of the 
Fong-hoang, of the dragon, or of the turtle, have their abode 
upon these gigantic mountains. 

" The probable origin of this systematic division is as fol- 
lows : In the fourth century of our era, the writers of the mod- 
ern sect of the Taoists, wishing to strike the imagination of the 
multitude, or to impose upon the credulity of the simple, in or- 
der to obtain credence for the cosmography which they pub- 
lished, borx'owed the great names of Yu and Pe-y. These writers 
had neither any idea of the structure of the earth, nor any 
knowledge of foreign lands ; but, as among all the mountains of 
the Celestial Empire there are five which the Chinese geogra- 



"CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 671 

phers since the days of the Cheu dynasty have placed in the 
first rank, and have designated by distinct titles, the authors of 
the Shan Hai King, in order to find a base or point of depart- 
ure, imagined five principal groups, or five great ranges of 
mountains, to take the place of these five mountains which had 
been consecrated by tradition, by religious ceremonies, and by 
history. 

" Whether this conjecture is accepted or rejected, it is none 
the less true that the Shan Hai King does not present a positive 
and credible cosmography, and that it should not be imagined 
that it is possible to determine the situation of the places which 
the authors, whoever they may have been, announce as existing. 
The truth of this assertion can easily be seen by reading a few 
extracts from it. 

" The last thirteen chapters of the Shan Hai King contain a 
description of foreign countries — that is to say, of the countries 
inhabited by spirits and by some of the three hundred and sixty 
varieties of the human race. 

" The spirits which governed or dwelt upon the surface of 
the earth in the days when the great Yu and Pe-y, ministers of 
the emperor Shun, both laboured for the draining off of the 
waters of the deluge (about the year 2255 b. c, according to the 
chronology of the Tseu-chit'ong-Jcien oi Sse-ma-kuang), differed 
from the spirits which lived under the reigns of Fu-hi, Hoang- 
ti, Chao-hao, Chuen-hio, and Ti-ko. The spirits of the sun, the 
moon, and the five planets, which are mentioned in the twelfth 
book of the Shin-yi-tien (History of the Gods and of Prodigies), 
are not referred to in the Shan Hai King, and its authors have 
turned the spirits of the earth {ling-Jci) into monsters or fantas- 
tic animals, and on this account there is some temptation to 
regard the description which they have transmitted to us as a 
malicious parody, invented by a writer of but medium capacity, 
to bring derision upon the beliefs of the Taoists. 

" As extracts from the work will sufiiciently demonstrate the 
fact that the Shan Hai King does not present a true cosmogra- 
phy from which modern science could derive information, but 
that it is instead merely a document which contributes to the 
history of the errors and extravagancies of the human mind, I 
will pass to the second part of my essay (which seems to me 
more worthy of interest), and show what were the opinions of 



672 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

the principal Chinese writers concerning the origin of this strange 
book, its contestable authority, its presumed authors, and its 
pretended antiquity. 

" It is mentioned for the first time in the Kia-yu (Familiar 
Discourses) of Confucius. This book is thought to be authentic 
by the Taoist authors. If the testimony of a chronicler is to be 
believed, it was found on the demolition of the house of Confu- 
cius, together with the Lun-yu (the Book of Exhortations), the 
Hiao King (the Book of Filial Piety), a part of the dictionary 
^Mh-ya, etc., and offered to the emperor Hiao-wu-ti by Kong 
Ngan-kue, who was a descendant of the great philosopher. The 
writers of the orthodox school rank the Kia-yu among the an- 
cient books which were interpolated, altered, or corrected by the 
writers of the Han dynasty. Others, in greater number, regard 
the Kia-yxi as an apocryphal book. However it may be, the work 
merits our attention, and, if it is admitted that it was composed 
during the Han dynasty, or about the commencement of the 
Christian era, it is still the most ancient work that mentions the 
Shan Hai King. 

" Tseu-hia, a disciple of Confucius, whose family name was 
Po-yang, who wrote a commentary upon the Y King^ expresses 
himself in these terms in the Kla-yu : 

" 'During the reign of the SJiang dynasty (1783 to 1134 b. c.) 
mention was made of a Book of the Mountains [Shan King).'' 

" Tseu-hia says again : 

" ' In this book the east and the west are designated by the 
term wei ^ the south and the north by the term king.'' 

" We can not fail to recognize the Shan Hai King in the 
Shan King of which Tseu-hia speaks. The words wei (woof) 
and hing (warp) are terms of nomenclature, or of classification, 
of which the real meaning is lost. They are found now among 
the astronomical terms of the Chinese, the* five planets being 
called wei, and the twenty-eight constellations hing. 

" Sse-ma-ts'ien, the most celebrated of the Chinese historians, 
expresses himself thus in the Sse-Jci: 

" * The Book of the Mountains {Shan King) is attributed to 
the great Yu ; but such extraordinary things are contained in 
this book that I do not dare to speak of them.' 

" I do not approve the position taken here by Sse-ma-ts'ien, 
and I believe that the renown which he acquired as the founder 



"CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 673 

of historical criticism in his country has caused his silence on 
this subject to be the means of exciting indecision on the part 
of later writers. Nevertheless, I hasten to say that his skepti- 
cism can hardly be considered as a fault, as the biographers of 
this great man attest that he did not exhibit it until after long 
and painful researches. 

" In the seventh century of our era a Chinese historian called 
Sse-ma-ching undertook to trace the history of the primitive 
times, which was lacking in the /Sse-ki of Sse-ma-ts'ien ; and, in 
a general explanation of the book entitled Kuo-yen-nien-ss'e, the 
following is found : 

" ' The great historian did not dare to speak of the Shan Hai 
King, either good or evil. It is assuredly a book composed dur- 
ing the Ts'in dynasty. The facts that are reported are in part 
credible and in part doubtful.' 

" After Sse-ma-ts'ien comes Chao-shi (Chao-hoa), who lived 
during the reign of the Han dynasty. In his commentary upon 
the Chronicle of the Kingdoms of Wu and Yue, a work of 
which the authority is very doubtful, he states that Yu, after 
consulting the spirits of the mountains and the lakes, and ob- 
taining information from them as to the mountains and rivers 
which contained gold and jade ; as to the birds, quadrupeds, 
reptiles, and living creatures which were to be found there ; as 
to the customs of the peoples of the eight divisions of the world ; 
and, finally, as to the extent of the foreign kingdoms and coun- 
tries — ordered Y to note all these details, to add a commentary, 
and to compose the book entitled the Shan Hai Kinr). 

" The complete account of Chao-shi abounds in errors. With- 
out speaking of its fabulous details, it contains anachronisms of 
a kind which are never found in the better class of Chinese works. 

" Wang-chong, who lived during the reign of Hiao-ho-ti, of 
the Han dynasty, who ascended the throne in the year 89 a. d., 
in the work which contains his astronomical dissertations, makes 
the following statement : 

" ' The great Yu received the order to labour for the drainage 
of the waters ; Y was charged to write the history of extraordi- 
nary events. These two men visited all the provinces, ascended 
the highest mountains, and visited the countries situated beyond 
the seas, and, from all that they had seen and heard, they com- 
posed the Shan Hai King.'' 
43 



674 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

" A poet, who lived during the epoch of the San Kue (221- 
265 A. D.), and who has the reputation of being the ablest man 
of his times known to historians, a man named Tso-sse, mentions 
the Shan Hai King in a piece of verse entitled Wu-tu-fu (Verse 
on the Five Capitals). 

" Mention is made of it in the preface of a commentary on 
the Shui King (Book of the Waters), a work composed during 
the epoch of the San Kue. The author says : 

"'Formerly the great Yu composed the SJian Mai King. 
He collected the material for this book in his long voyages.' 

" Another commentary of the Shui King says : 

" ' The Shan Hai King is a mutilated history ( Choang- Chi) ; 
but, nevertheless, the great Yu gave a description of foreign 
countries.' 

" Chang-hoa, who lived during the reign of the Ts'in dynasty 
(265-420 A. D. ), in the preface to the Po-ioe-chi (Fabulous En- 
cyclopaedia), says : 

" * Two of the most ancient books still exist ; these are the 
Herbal of Chin-nong (the Pen-tsao), and the Shayi Hai King, 
which several writers attribute to the great Yu.' 

" In the ' Consideration (Zan) of the Western and Southern 
Kingdoms,' a book published during the dynasty of the Later 
Han (947-951 a. d.), the following passage occurs : 

" ' The Book of Mountains contains a description of the world, 
from the country where the sun rises to the place where it 
sets.' 

" Finally, in the summaries of the Geography of Tu-yu we 
read : 

" ' The twenty-eight constellations of heaven have long been 
designated by special titles ; the mountains and the streams of 
the earth long ago received special names. All these titles and 
names are found abridged in the Yu Kong and the Shan Hai 
King, monuments bequeathed by the men of ancient times to 
the following generations ; but if it is desired to go deeper into 
the matter, and learn the names of the kingdoms and cities more 
in detail, the Chiin-tsieu of Confucius should be read.' 

" Without stopping to discuss a multitude of assertions, which 
hardly seem worthy of the trouble, I come to the opinion of Lo- 
pi, who in 1190 a. d. published a book called the JJu-sse, in which 
he states that Y established a classification of living beings, dis- 



"CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 675 

tinguishing those which were harmful from those which were of 
use to mankind, and composed the Shan Hai King. 

" Among more modern works we read in the Ku-yang-tsa-tm 
of Kia-ching-shi : 

" ' All the operations of heaven and earth are mysterious and 
incomprehensible, and withdraw themselves from the investiga- 
tion of men. This is why the Shan Hai King and the diction- 
ary ^Rh-ya are books which can not be comprehended.* 
" In the collection of poems of Cheu-pang-yen, it is said : 
" • The Book of the Mountains is a book of which the origin 
is not known ; the kingdom of Tsi is a kingdom which no one 
has ever seen.' 

" Finally, the book entitled Tsu-tse-yu mentions this work in 
the following terms : 

" ' Heaven and earth are great ; what do they not contain ? 
The Shan Hai King is full of doubtful statements, but who can 
affirm that the assertions which seem doubtful to us are abso- 
lutely false ? ' 

" That which we think the best opinion is expressed in the 
book entitled Tu-geu T'ong-tien (the Encyclopedia of Tu-yeu), a 
work which was first published under the T'ang dynasty. Tu- 
yeu, whose opinion is universally received by the orthodox school, 
expresses himself as follows : 

'''As to the YuPen-U (the History of Yu), and the Shan 
Hai King, I do not know under which dynasty they were com- 
posed. They contain statements which are strange and whimsi- 
cal, and directly in opposition to the facts reported in the classical 
authorities known as the lUng. I suspect that these two works 
were written, after Confucius had revised the Shi King and the 
Shu King, by some man who loved the marvelous. It is pos- 
sible, however, that the Yu Pen-U and the Shan Hai King ex- 
isted before the days of Confucius, and that the fables which 
they contain were interpolated by writers of following genera- 
tions, such as those who composed the Ku-cheu-shu, the Chron- 
icle of the Kingdoms of Wu and Yue, the Yue-tsiuei and the 
Chu-tcei-shi(.^ 

" I do not think that it is necessary to go beyond the state- 
ment of the author of this encyclopaedia, to come to the conclusion 
that the Shan Hai King is a fabulous book, of which the origin 
is not really known, and for my part I declare this to be my 



676 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

opinion. "When, one after another, I have questioned the Chi- 
nese writers of the sect of the Taoists, whose conjectures are so 
vague and whose hypotheses are so confused ; when I have added 
new testimony to that which I have reported — the most imposing 
authority can not balance that of the imperial academy of the 
Han-lin ; and the editors of the Ko-clxang-tiao-li (the Code of 
Competitive Public Examinations), in placing the Shaii Hai 
King upon the index, have proved that they are of the same 
opinion as Tu-yeu. In spite of this, however, scholars always 
read this book, but they are careful not to seriously quote the 
traditions which it contains. They read it rather as a romance 
is read, as an agreeable pastime, and because it is best to be 
acquainted with all that has been written. ' The &han Hai 
King has almost always been studied,' says the author of a 
work entitled Lieu-fong-tsa-tsu, ' and even now among the best 
scholars there are many who read and study it, but who regard 
it as a book in which the marvelous dominates.' 

" It serves to stimulate the imagination of the youthful Chi- 
nese, who read this fabulous cosmogr^Dhy with avidity, and 
hence phrases like the following are often found in prefaces : 

" ' In my youth, I read the Shaii Hai King, and I remember 
that the monstrous animals of which it speaks nearly all had 
whimsical names.' [Kuei-yeu-Jcuang-shi.) 

" ' When I icas young, I loved to copy books, and I twice 
transcribed the dictionary ^JRh-ya, the Shaii Hai King, and the 
Pen-tsao^ (Preface of the book entitled JSfan-sse-wang-yun- 
chuen.) 

" After having brought together all that I could, but perhaps 
in too narrow a circle of Chinese erudition, as to the opinions 
which the writers of the Celestial Empire have expressed concern- 
ing the Shan Hai King, I will now briefly examine the opinions 
of the commentators. 

"These, Kuo-p'o, Jin Chin-ngan, etc., generally reproduce the 
opinions of the original writers. They sometimes add notes ; but 
these notes, although instructive to the Chinese, have no interest 
for us. The famous philosopher Lie-tseu, he who lived forty 
years in a desert, attributes the editing of the Shan Hai King 
to Meng-kien. He says : * The great Yu discovered (the mount- 
ains and the seas) in his voyages ; Pe-y remembered (that which 
the holy man had described), and gave them their names. Meng- 



"CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 67Y 

kien understood (the narration of the voyages from the mouth 
of Pe-y) and consigned it to writing.' Other commentators con- 
fine themselves to a citation of the extraordinary facts mentioned 
in the book. Some pass in review the foreign nations that live 
beyond the seas. They insist particularly upon the divisions of 
the book and upon the terms of nomenclature. They almost all 
differ from one another as to the number of chapters which it had 
during such or such a dynasty. Kuo-p'o states that in the days 
of the Ts'in dynasty each chapter was followed by a summary in 
which everything of interest contained in it was recapitulated. 
A fact worthy of notice is that there were formerly gaps or 
omissions at the beginning and end of the book, and that under 
the Lesser Tsi dynasty (479-502 a. d.) a scholar called Kiang- 
yen wished to add a supplement, just as Li-shi, under the Ts'in 
dynasty, added a supplement to the Po-ioe-chi. The commenta- 
tors have not submitted the geographical names of foreign coun- 
tries to judicious criticism, but they endeavour to prove that such 
a mountain of the Shan Hai King corresponds to such another 
of the ITu Kong. Finally, two commentators place this book 
among the Chu-shu, or the ' Books written iipon Bamboo Tab- 
lets,' and found in the tombs the first year Tai-shi of the reign 
of Wu-ti of the Ts'in dynasty (265 a. d.). The Chu-shu are evi- 
dently apocryphal books, and nothing could more enfeeble the 
authority of the Shan Hai King than this assertion of the two 
commentators. 

" The book contains over thirty thousand characters in the 
text, and over twenty thousand are found in the commentaries, 
which is a great number for a book containing such extrava- 
gancies, and which does not merit deep study in a country like 
China, in which the amount of true geographical knowledge is 
far from despicable." 

It will be seen from the foregoing remarks of M. Bazin that 
he considers the work to be unworthy of serious attention ; and 
founds this belief largely upon its stories of the existence of 
fantastic monstei's. There is reason to believe, however, that 
the accounts of these monsters are partly interpolations by the 
Taoists, who have attempted to bolster up their belief in the 
existence of innumerable spirits, which animate the works of 
Nature, by incorporating descriptions of these " supernatural be- 



67S AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

ings " with the accounts of foreign lands, and are partly crude 
and unscientific or poetical descriptions of existing beings. 

For some reason (perhaps because of M. Bazin's belief that 
the work was unworthy of serious study) no translation of it 
into any European language has been made. M. Emile Burnoiif 
has recently published a few short extracts from it, however, 
and has announced his intention of translating the entire work. 
The editor of the " Proceedings of the Provincial Congress of 
French Orientalists " makes the following comments ujaon this 
announcement : 

"This book has been treated with too little attention by 
Orientalists ; but their opinions in regard to it are now daily 
being changed. Bazin saw nothing in it but a tissue of absurd 
legends ; but the opinion of this Sinologue was based merely 
upon the grotesque pictures which ornament the popular editions 
of this book. A more careful examination of the original text 
of the Shan Hai King demonstrates, beyond question, that this 
* Sacred Book of Geography ' contains not only fabulous tales, 
such as might be expected in a work of such great antiquity, but 
also precise scientific statements from which the scholarly world 
can obtain much knowledge of the archaic period of the Chinese 
monarchy." 

The strange monsters of the Shan Hai King are not more 
absurd and grotesque than many that are mentioned in other 
early histories. Tacitus, for instance, concludes his "Germa- 
nia " with a reference to the story that the Oxiones have the 
head and face of a man, and the body and limbs of a beast. 
Zeus has ingeniously explained that these animals with human 
faces could have been nothing else than men clothed in 
skins.^*^^ 

In the Japanese traditions, mention is made of a terrible ser- 
pent having eight heads and eight tails, called " the eight-headed 
serpent." The same monster is described in the Shan Hai King, 
and we should be at a loss to know what was meant if the Ja- 
panese commentators did not explain that this is the name of a 
rapid river having eight mouths.'^"' 

It is stated that a Japanese army was guided in its march by 
a " crow with eight feet." The Chinese divide their compass 
by eight points — the four cardinal points and the intermediate 
points ; and it is therefore probable that the '' crow with eight 



"CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 679 

feet " was the name given to the compass by which Zin mu 
was guided in his expedition.'"" 

It does not seem impossible that the same explanation may 
account for the story of the T'lEif wu, the " Lord of the Water," 
having eight heads, eight tails, and eight legs. 

The animals, which are variously described as resembling 
striped cattle ; cattle with blue bodies, no horns, and one foot ; 
dogs with six legs ; foxes with fishes' fins, and swine with men's 
faces, are probably seals, sea-lions, sea-otters, and other phoca- 
ceans. The Chinese describe their voices as resembling the grunt 
of a hog ; that of a person stretching and yawning, or rather 
moaning ; that of an infant ; the cry of a wild goose, or an exj^ira- 
tion of the breath. Pinart says that the otter, when attacked, 
utters heart-rending cries, which almost resemble the groans of 
a human being ; ^°'" and the " History of Kamtchatka " says that 
the cry of the old sea-calves resembles that of a person endeavour- 
ing to vomit, and the young ones cry like a person in pain.'*^' 

Seals may be said to look like a dog with six legs, for the 
fore-flippers may be counted as two legs, and the hind-flippers, 
held out straight behind, look as the legs of a dog would look 
who dragged an extra pair behind those with which his race are 
furnished. Other describers might fancy the sea-lions to be like 
cattle with one foot. In this case the fore-flippers would be con- 
sidered as "fins," and the hind-flippers, fastened together and ex- 
tended behind, would be regarded as one member. 

In the last paragragh of our extract from the Shan Hai King 
mention is made of an animal found in the " Islands of the 
Flowing Stream," situated in the sea at a distance of seven thou- 
sand U. The "flowing stream" may be the gulf -stream of the 
Pacific, the Kuro Siwo ; and the islands are probably either the 
Kurile or the Aleutian Islands. The animals found upon them 
are said to look like cattle with blue bodies, but no horns, hav- 
ing one foot, and coming out of and going into the water. This 
description should be compared with that given by Klaproth of 
the sea-otters : "^^ " The largest are about ten feet long, and are 
of a purple colour. Although the Chinese call them sea-cattle, 
they have no horns." 

We should hardly know what to make of the description of 
the fish with one head and ten bodies if it were not stated that 
the cuttle-fish is meant ; and the account of a fish that looks 



680 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

like a lung, but which has eyes and six feet, is probably another 
attempt to describe the same creature. 

The animal like a rabbit, with a crow's bill, owl eyes, and 
serpent's tail, is probably some species of large lizard ; the bird 
with two heads may be the horn-bill, or some species of swan 
with a large tubercle at the base of the bill ; and the fox with 
eight or nine tails may have been the beaver. The bird with 
rats' hair or rats' legs is mentioned by Hue as follows : 

" We remarked in Tartary another species of migratory bird 
about the size of a quail ; its legs, instead of feathers, are covered 
with a sort of long, rough hair, like that of the musk-deer." '^^^ 

The wearing of serpents in the ears, as ear-rings, has probably 
been a custom of more than one savage tribe. Purchas describes 
its existence in America in these words : " In each eare com- 
monly they haue three great holes, whereat they hang chaines, 
bracelets, or copper ; some weare in those holes a small snake, 
coloured greene and yellow, neare halfe a yard long, which, 
crawling about his neck, offereth to kisse his lippes." -"" 

It should be noted that the Shan Hai King seems to be a 
compilation of a number of distinct accounts of the countries 
which are described. Thus the first, second, and fourth sections 
of the fourth book all begin with a description of the country 
near the Shih River. The ninth and fourteenth books both give 
accounts of the Great Men's Country ; of the Land of Refined 
Gentlemen ; of the Land of People with Black Hips ; of the Dis- 
tressed People's Country, and the Green Hills Country ; while 
the description in the ninth book of the Cha Hill is in the four- 
teenth book applied to a country called Kin-yung. 

It is probable that a scholar thoroughly versed in Chinese 
geography could, with the aid of a native student, identify most 
of the eastern mountains (or islands) and countries that are 
described. 

The statements regarding the mountain or island of the 
" Eastern Pass," the Land of Refined Gentlemen, and the Coun- 
try of the Presiding Spirits, evidently refer to Japan. See pp. 
663 and 664, and compare the statement on the last-named page 
with the traditions current in Japan, as to the seven successive 
genii who ruled the earth before men were placed upon it. Of 
these the first three were self-engendered, and were masculine. 
The fourth celestial spirit had a female companion, and since 



"CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 681 

that time there have been males and females. These two, how- 
ever, were not husband and wife, in the gross, earthly sense, and 
they and the three following pairs of genii followed the laws of 
heaven and earth, '^"^^ and produced offspring in all purity, con- 
ception taking place only by a sort of contemplation of each 
other on the part of each couple, by supernatural means which 
the degradation of mankind prevents them from comprehend- 
jjjg 2U8 rYYxe statement, that they have clothing, caps, sashes, 
and swords, shows that they had attained a state of civilization 
greater than that of the nations north and south of them, and 
approximating that of the Chinese. Even to this day the Japan- 
ese are noted among the neighbouring nations for their custom 
of wearing swords or sabers.'^'' 

The gentle tigers that slink away at the sight of a human 
being may be now exterminated, but tigers' skins are among the 
articles which were formerly exported from Jesso/®^^ and bears 
are still found in the forests of the country.^^" Tigers and leop- 
ards were also once found in Corea.'"^ The poisonous locust, 
mentioned in the eighth paragraj^h of the fourth section of the 
fourth book (see page 656), is probably the insect referred to in 
the traditions of Japan, which assert that, when the land was first 
settled, the province of Fiougciy near that of Satswna, was infested 
by flying insects, two inches in length, named tsu-su-ga, of which 
the bite was mortal, but that as the country was cleared up and 
cultivated the insects disappeared. ^°" 

Chao-yang (The Ravine of the Manifestation of the Dawn) 
is probably Corea, which is now known as Chao-sien (The Bright- 
ness of the Dawn). The "Hairy People" are unquestionably 
the Ainos of Jesso and Northern Japan, whose hairiness has 
attracted the attention of all travelers in that region. 

The best clew to the location of the land of Fu-sang, or of 
the Fu-tree, that is mentioned in the Shan Hai King, is found in 
the fact that it is nearly always mentioned in connection with 
the Black-Teeth Country, and that it is said to adjoin that land 
on the north. This Black-Teeth Country must have been some 
region inhabited by the Malays, whose practice it is to file and 
blacken their teeth. The custom, as it exists in Sumatra, is thus 
described by Marsden : 

" Both sexes have the extraordinary custom of filing and 
otherwise disfiguring their teeth, which are naturally very white 



682 AN INGLOKIOUS COLUMBUS. 

and beautiful. Many, particularly the women of the Lampong 
Country, have their teeth rubbed down quite even with the 
gums ; others have them formed in points ; and some file off no 
more than the outer coat and extremities, in order that they may 
the better receive and retain the jetty blackness with which they 
almost universally adoi'n them." '*"° 

This fashion exists throughout the Indian Archipelago and as 
far to the northeast as the Philippine or Luzon Islands.'*'*^ It is 
therefore in these islands, or in their neighbourhood, that we 
must look for the Fu-sang of the Chinese " Classic of Mountains 
and Seas." These islands were probably known to the Chinese 
before they discovered the much nearer island of Formosa, as 
they lay in the direct course of the monsoons, and afforded some 
of those commodities of their peculiar luxury, in quest of which 
they made still more distant voyages to the islands farther 
west."^* The banana or plantain (Musa paracUsiaca, L.) ^^^^ is 
known to the Malays by the name ^^isan^,^'*^^ and, as it is the 
most valuable and remarkable tree or plant found in that region, 
it seems that this must have been the plant which first gave to 
the Chinese the name Fu-sang. The description of its fruit that 
is given in the Shin I King (see Chapter XV, p. 250), where it 
is said to be three feet and five inches long, adds to the likelihood 
that this is the plant that was meant, as the "hand," or bunch, is 
about three feet in length, and the individual fruits about five 
inches. The description of the leaves, as being ten feet long and 
six or seven broad, is also in fair accordance with this view. 

Thei'e seems a possibility that the apparently absurd story of 
the " ten suns " may assist in determining the true location of the 
land ; for if we consider that the Avord " branches " is used by 
the Chinese to designate divisions of time, it will appear that the 
statement, that nine suns are contained in the lower branches and 
one sun in the upper branches, may have been an archaic or 
poetical M^ay of saying that nine tenths of the time the sun, when 
it crossed the meridian, was south of the zenith, and one tenth 
of the time it crossed to the north ; a statement which would 
indicate that the land lay in about 20° north latitude. 

I therefore believe that the Chinese had, before the Christian 
era, some knowledge of the Philippine Islands, and of the pisang 
or banana tree found upon them, and that this was the source of 
their first legends regarding Fu-sang, and the fu-sang tree. 



"CLASSIC OF MOUNTAINS AND SEAS." 683 

When Hwui Shan returned from Mexico, the name " Me-shi-co " 
was thought to suiSciently resemble the appellation Fu-sang- 
kwoh (i. e., Fu-sang country) to indicate that the land was the 
one referred to in their old legends ; and the facts that both 
countries lay to the east, or to the south of east, and that both 
derived their names from a remarkable plant or tree, were thought 
to make it certain that the country which he had visited was the 
one mentioned in their traditions. After his days the two coun- 
tries were therefore assumed to be one and the same, and Hwui 
Shan's description of the agave was mixed and confused with the 
earlier accounts of the plantain. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

RECAPITULATION. 

Summary of reasons for thinking that Hwui ShUn visited Mexico — The command 
of Buddha — The ease of the journey — The " silk " and mirror brought back 
by him — The belief of his contemporaries — Fu-sang must have been in Japan 
or America, and was not in Japan — Hwui Shan's story paralleled with ac- 
counts of the countries by other authors — The Country of Marked Bodies — 
Great Han — Fu-sang — The Country of Women — Summary of facts mentioned 
by Hwui Shan — The transparent mirror could not have been obtained else- 
where than in Mexico — The Mexican tradition of Hwui Shan's visit — Coinci- 
dences between Asiatic and American civilizations — Pyramids — ^Architect- 
ure — Arts — Religious structures — Religious customs and beliefs — Idols — 
Marriage ceremonies — Dress — Food — Books — Games — The working of metals 
— Suspension-bridges — The calendar — Civilized nations of America all upon 
the Pacific coast — Allowances to be made — Errors of first explorers — Hwui 
Shan not a Chinaman — Errors of manuscripts — Changes in language — 
Changes in customs — Our imperfect knowledge of Mexican civilization — The 
argument stronger than its weakest parts — Conclusion, 

Having, in the foregoing pages, given in extenso the reasons 
for believing that Hwui Shan visited Mexico, this work will be 
concluded with a brief summary of the grounds upon which this 
belief is based, as their united weight, when all are brought 
together, will be found much more convincing than any argu- 
ment founded upon only one or a few of the points that have 

been presented. 

I. 

The command of Buddha to his disciples, to preach his doc- 
trine to all men without exception, constituted a reasonable mo- 
tive for the journey. His disciples penetrated all parts of Asia, 
and probably reached Europe also, and in their wanderings made 
many journeys nearly or quite as long, difficult, and hazardous 
as the voyage from Asia to America. If, therefore, there was a 
practicable route from Asia to America, it is not improbable />er 
se that some of these devotees should have found and followed it. 



KECAPITULATION. 685 



The route via China, Corea, Japan, the island of Saghalien, 
the Kurile and the Aleutian Islands to Alaska, and thence down 
the American coast, is a practicable route for one man or a small 
party of men to take in an open row-boat or small sail -boat. 
There is but one place at which the voyager would be out of 
sight of land, and then only for a few hours. Furthermore, each 
step of the journey is well known to the natives, so that an ar- 
dent missionary, determined to carry his doctrines to the utmost 
limits of the earth, would merely have to press on from one 
island to another — being told in each of another island lying 
farther to the east — to ultimately find himself in America. 



Hwui Shan had evidently visited some unknown eastern 
land. The so-called "silk," which differed from any that the 
Chinese had ever seen, and the wonderful mirror which he 
brought back with him, sufficiently prove this fact. 

IV. 

In addition to this tangible proof, the fact that he succeeded 
in inspiring all whom he met with confidence in his story is a 
reasonable ground for the belief that he was honest in his ac- 
count, and told the truth in regard to his journey. No impostor 
who pretended that he came from an unknown foreign land has 
ever escaped detection, and even most explorers who are now 
known to have been honest in their .statements were derided by 
those to whom their tale was first told. Moreover, the nature of 
his story is such that no one can read it carefully without a con- 
viction of its truth. When properly translated, it contains noth- 
ing marvelous or unnatural, and the internal evidence of truth- 
fulness is such that very few have ever adopted the theory that 
his account is but a figment of the imagination. 

V. 

The only eastern countries which it has ever been thought 
possible to identify with Hwui Shan's land of Fu-sang are Japan 
and America ; but that the country could not have been Japan 
is shown by the facts presented in Chapter XXXIV. No other 



686 



AN INGLOEIOUS COLUMBUS. 



hypothesis is therefore left to us than that Fu-sang must be 
sought in America. 

VI. 

Hwui Shan's story gives a faithful and accurate account of 
the Aleutian Islands, of Alaska, and of Mexico ; and it is still 
possible to prove that nearly every one of his statements was 
true. This can be shown most succinctly and convincingly by 
giving his account in one column, and in a parallel column pre- 
senting statements of well-known facts, and extracts from vari- 
ous authors who have described the lands in question. In the 
following columns, quotations are distinguished by being printed 
in italics, and the references will, as in other cases, be found in 
the Appendix : 



The country of " Marked 
Bodies " is situated seven thou- 
sand U (about 2,300 miles) and 
more to the northeast of the 
country of Japan. 

Its people have marks upon 
their bodies like wild beasts. 



In front (or upon their fore- 
heads) they have three marks. 



If the marks are large and 
straight, they indicate that those 
who have them are of the high- 
er classes ; but if they ai"e small 



The Aleutian Islands are sit- 
uated about two thousand miles 
northeasterly from Japan. 



Tattooing was very custom- 
ary in former times in the Aleu- 
tian Islands.'^*^ 

Pigments of various dye are 
applied (to the skin of the peo- 
ple), hoth painted outwardly 
and pricked into the skin.^"^ 

The women have on their 
chin a vertical line about half 
an inch broad in the center, ex- 
tending from the lip, with a 
parallel but narroioer one on 
either side of it, a little apart }^^ 
On Behring^s Isle, men as icell 
as icomen tattoo. Many men 
have the face tattooed?'^'' 

At Point Barrow some of 
the women had tico vertical 
lines protruding from either 
angle of the mouth, ichich is a 



KECAPITULATION". 



687 



and crooked, then their possess- 
ors are of the lower classes. 

The people of the land are 
of a merry nature, and they re- 
joice when they have an abund- 
ance, even of articles that are 
of little value. 



Traveling visitors do not 
prepare food for their journeys, 
and they have the shelter of 
their (the inhabitants') dwell- 
ings. 



They have no fortifications 
or walled cities. 

The residence of the king 
(or kings) of the country is 
adorned with gold and silver, 
and precious and beautiful ob- 
jects about the dwelling. 



mark of their high position 
in the trihey^^ 

Originally the Aleutian 
tribes were active and sprightly, 
fond of dances and festivals. ^"^^^ 
Whole villages entertained other 
villages, receiving the guestswith 
songs and dances. If a ichale 
teas cast ashore, the natives as- 
sembled withjoyous and remark- 
able ceremonies. ^^^"^ 

They meet every stranger 
at the landing-place. If the 
stranger has a relative or inti- 
mate friend, he goes to hiin. 
If not, no one xcill invite him, 
but all are ready to receive him. 
lie can choose his quarters him- 
self There he is entertained in 
the best manner. They never 
think of asking their guest for 
anything, but let him stay as 
long as he may / they even pro- 
vide him with food of every 
kind when he departs}^^^ 

It is a well-known fact that 
the Aleutians have no fortifica- 
tions or walled cities. 

In the Aleutian Islands, 
every island, and, in the larger 
islands, every village, has its 
toyon or chief™ 

Among the Haidah Indi- 
ans, carved p>osts or j^iUcti'S are 
raised in front of the houses 
of the chiefs or j)rinci2Kd men. 
Some of the best ones cost sev- 
eral thousand dollars ; conse- 
quently only the most wealthy 
individuals of the tribe are able 



688 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



They make a ditch of a 
breadth of one rod, which is 
filled with " water -silver." 
When it rains, then the rain 
flows upon the surface of the 
" water-silver." 



In their traffic they use pre- 
cious gems (or valuables, as the 
standard of value, instead of 
gold or silver). 



" Great Han " is situated 
five thousand li (some sixteen 
hundred miles) or more east of 
the country of " Marked Bod- 
ies." 



to purchase the best sjyecimens. 
TJie Sitka tribes have this style 
of carved posts.^"' 

The terra " water-silver " is 
a good descriptive term for ice. 
The country is intolerably rainy, 
and the rain, which accumulates 
in ditches or hollow places, must 
often be frozen into thick ice, 
having the transparency of wa- 
ter and the purity and glitter- 
ing hardness of silver. 

No money was current in 
the country. The custom of 
bartering existing among the 
Aleuts was of great age.""' Am- 
ber formed an important article 
of commerce with the natives, '°° 
and extraordinary value was set 
upon it, a single bead repre- 
senting in value a good many 
sea-otter skins."'^ 

Alaska is situated some fif- 
teen hundred miles easterly of 
the most westerly of the Aleu- 
tian Islands. The name Alaska 
is derived from a root meaning 
a great country or continent.^^^^ 
The Chinese character llan is 
composed of two parts, mean- 
ing respectively " water" and 
" hardship," It is applied to a 
river noted for its " swirling 
waters," ^^^^ and also applied to 
the Milky Way, thus indicating 
that its original meaning was 
*' foaming or dashmg water." 
If it was used with this mean- 
ing, it is particularly applicable 
to Alaska or the Aleutian Isl- 



RECAPITULATION. 



689 



Its people have no military- 
weapons and do not wage war. 



The rudeness of their cus- 
toms is the same as that of 
the people of the country of 
"Marked Bodies," but the 
words of their language are 
different. 

Fu-sang is situated twice ten 
thousand U (some seven thou- 
sand miles) or more to the east 
of the country of Great Han. 
That land is also situated to 
the east of the Middle King- 
dom (China). 



That region has many fu- 
sang trees, and it is from these 
trees that the country derives 
its name. The leaves of the 
fu-sang resemble ? 



44 



ands, the coasts of which are 
rochy and surrounded hy break- 
er s?'^^"^ 

Alaska is inhabited by Es- 
quimaux ; and these people are 
noted, wherever they are found, 
for their peaceful and unwar- 
like disposition, differing in this 
respect from nearly all other 
tribes of Asia and America. 

The people are undeniably 
of the same race. The lan- 
guage is different. The cus- 
toms, manners, methods of liv- 
ing, means of sustenance and 
the clothing, hoicever, are al- 
most exactly the same."^^ 

Mexico is situated some five 
thousand miles southeasterly 
from Alaska, and is also direct- 
ly east of the southern portion 
of China. It is evident that 
Hwui Shan's course from Great 
Han to Fu-sang was southeast- 
erly rather than easterly, as the 
first part of his journey from 
Japan lay in a northeasterly 
direction, and he must there- 
fore have worked to the south 
in order to come to a country 
east of China. 

"Mexico" means "the Land 
of the Century-plant," and there 
is, therefore, the same connec- 
tion between the name of the 
country and this plant that 
there was between Fu-sang and 
the remarkable plant or tree 
found in it. The Chinese would 
probably apply the character 



690 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



The first sprouts are like 
those of the bamboo. 



The people of the country- 
eat them. 



And the (or a) fruit, which 
is like a pear (in form) but of 
a reddish colour. 



They spin thread from their 
bark, 



from which they make cloth, of 
which they make clothing. 
They also manufacture a finer 
fabric from it. 

In constructing their houses, 
they use planks such as are gen- 
erally used when building adobe 
walls. 



which we translate " tree " to 
the century-plant, so that its 
use is no proof that this plant 
was not the " tree " referred to 
by Hwui Shan. 

The first sprouts of the cent- 
ury-plant or agave are wonder- 
fully similar to those of the 
bamboo. 

They not only eat the tender 
rooty hut also the central shoot, 
heepingits soft and fleshy con- 
sistence}^^^ 

Upon this plant alone the 
Indians can live.^^*^ 

The prickly-pear, the fruit 
of a species of cactus native to 
Mexico, is of the shape of a pear. 
There are species of many dif- 
ferent colours,"^* but the com- 
mon variety is red. The army 
of Cortez lived for a long time 
upon it.'^*^ 

JVequen is a species of coarse 
hemp, xohich the Mexicans draw 
from the harJc of the aloe or 
maguey (i. e., the agave or cent- 
ury-plant), of which they make 
cloth.^^^ From the maguey they 
made two Jcinds of cloth, one of 
which icas like hempen cloth, 
and a finer kind, ichich resem- 
bled linen.^^^ 

The habitations of the great- 
er part of the people were of 
clay hardened in the sun, and 
of earth.-'^ The walls of the 
so-called "Casas Grandes" are 
laid with large square blocks of 
mud, prepared for the purpose 



EEOAPITULATION". 



691 



They have no citadels or 
walled cities. 



They have literary charac- 



ters, 



and make paper from the bark 
of the fu-sang. 

They have no military 
weapons or armour, and they 
do not wage war in that king- 
dom. 



According to their rules (of 
government or of religion) they 
have a southern and a northern 
place of confinement. An of- 
fender who has transgressed 
but slightly enters the south- 



by 2^ fussing the material into 
large boxes about tico feet in 
height and four feet long. 
When the mud became suffi- 
ciently hardened, the case was 
moved along and again filled, 
and so on, until the whole edi- 
fice was co7npleted.^^ 

The truth is that there can 
not be found in any quarter 
the least trace of an inclosure, 
of an adjoining defense of any 
kind, or even of exterior forti- 
fications^"^^^ 

JSTo nation ever reduced pic- 
tography more to a systetn. In 
these records we discern some- 
thing 7nore than a mere sym- 
bolic notation. They contain 
the germ of a phonetic alpha- 
bet.^"^ Their paper was made 
for the most part of maguey 
fiber.''' 

The Toltecs were much 
milder and gentler than the 
Aztecs, who conquered them 
and wrested their country from 
them. It is reported that the 
nations of Yucatan learned the 
art of icar from these Aztecs, 
having been an altogether j^eace- 
ful people before theNahua in- 
fiuence icas brought to bear on 
them.'^'^^ 

There is here some confu- 
sion between the criminal laws 
of the Mexicans and their re- 
ligious belief as to punishments 
after death. 

They had two species of 



692 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



ern place of confinement, but 
if he has sinned heavily he en- 
ters the northern place of con- 
finement. If there is pardon 
for him, then he is sent away 
to (or, possibly, from) the south- 
ern place of confinement, but if 
he can not be pardoned, then 
he is sent away to the northern 
one. 



Those men and women 
dwelling in the northern place 
of confinement when they mate 
(or have mated) and bear (or 
have borne) children, the boys 
are made slaves at the asre of 
eight years and the girls at the 
age of nine years. The crimi- 
nal (or the criminal's body) is 
not allowed to go out up to (or 
at) the time of his death. 



2)risons — one for those who had 
not merited the punishment of 
death, and the other for the 
prisoners xoho loere to he sacj'i- 
feed, and those xoho toere guilty 
of capital crimes}"''^ 

The Aztec hero tcccs borne 
(after death) to the bright 
p>lains of the Sun-house^"^^ 

After four years of this life, 
the sotds of the warriors pass 
into birds of beautiful plum- 
age?^^ Children balked of their 
life by death or sacrifice were 
allowed to essay it again. Mic- 
tlan, the Mexican hades, signi- 
fies ^^ northward,'''' or ^'toward 
the norths It was a dark and 
gloomy region, a place ofpun- 
ishment,^^^ from which there 
was no escape. 

The children referred to 
were probably either illegiti- 
mate children or orphans, and 
there is reason to believe that 
these classes "^^ were often re- 
duced to slavery. "'° 

At the age of seven years 
the father brings his son to the 
priest. ^^^ 

The young girls are also 
brought to the temple at the age 
of eight years.^^^ 

Children whom the Span- 
iards would describe as seven 
and eight years of age respect- 
ively would be said by the Chi- 
nese to be eight and nine years 
old.'^^' Hence the ages above 
stated are the same as those 



KECAPITULATION. 



693 



When a nobleman has com- 
mitted a crime, the people of 
the country hold a great assem- 
blage and sit in judgment on 
the culprit, in an excavated tu- 
mulus. They feast, and drink, 
and bid him farewell when 
parting from him, as if taking 
leave of a dying man. 



mentioned by Hwui Shan, and 
it is reasonable to suppose that 
children who were made slaves 
would be obliged to commence 
their work at the same age that 
more fortunate children were 
first sent to school, or taken to 
the temples. 

Each jiuehlo contains an 
estufa, which is used both as a 
council- chamher and a place of 
worship. It is built partly 
under ground. Here they hold 
all their deliberations on public 
affairs, and transact the neces- 
sary business of the village.^^'' 
It is a siiigular fact, resulting 
from the structure of Indian 
institutions, that nearly every 
transaction, whether social or 
political, originated or termi- 
nated in a council.^^^^ The 
" Council of the Kin " exercised 
power over life and death.^'^'' 

A difference was made in 
the punishment of criminals ac- 
cording to their rank, the king 
saying that he who teas the 
most elevated in rank merited 
the most rigourous treatment.^"^ 

In Darien, if a noble com- 
mitted a criine punishable with 
death, notice was given to all 
the people, so that they shoidd 
assemble and icitness the execu- 
tion. The chief then, in the 
presence of the midtitude, recit- 
ed the offense and the culprit 
acknowledged the justice of the 
sentence.^^* 



694 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



Then they surrounded him 
with ashes there. 



For a single crime (or a 
crime of the first magnitude) 
only one person (the culprit) 
was hidden (or sent) away. For 
two crimes (or a crime of the 
second magnitude) the children 
and grandchildren were includ- 
ed in the punishment. 

For three crimes (or a crime 
of the third magnitude) seven 
generations were included in 
the punishment. 

The title of the king of the 
country is " the chief of the 
multitude." 



The noblemen of the first 
rank are called " Tui-lu^'' 



those of the second rank, " Lit- 
tle Tui-lUy^ 



and those of the third rank, 
" N^ah-to-sha:^ 



Criminals of a certain class 
were hound to a stake, com- 
pletehj covered with ashes, and 
so left to die.^^^ 

The rohbery of sacred things, 
'profanation of the temple, in- 
sidt to the ministers of religion, 
or to the person of the mon- 
arch, were considered as high 
treason, and the cidprit was 
punished with death, his goods 
were confiscated to the public 
treasury, a?id his family de- 
clared infamous.^^ 

TJie children and relations 
of the traitor were enslaved till 
the fifth generation^^^ 

Montezuma's title was 
Tlaca-tecuhtli^^'^ meaning 
" Chief of Men," '^'" or Tecatecle 
Tetuan Ititlacatl,^^^^ meaning 
" the Nation's Lord of our Peo- 
ple." 

The rank of TecuhtU was the 
highest honour that a prince or 
soldier could acquire.^^^ This 
title is spelled by others, 
Tecutli,''^' Teuchtli,^'"> Teuctli, 
"" Tecle,'''' Teutley,'"' Teuhtli,'' 
TeuU;''' and TeuW^ 

The words tepito ''"" or 
tontli,^^^^ meaning little or 
petty, are suffixed to the title 
Tlatoca, to express a lower 
rank of nobility than is indi- 
cated by the title without these 
suffixes."^' 

The Mexican title Tlatoque 
or Tlatoca is probably the one 
which Hwui Shan attempts to 



RECAPITULATION. 



695 



The king of the country, 
when he walks abroad, is pre- 
ceded and followed with drums 
and horns. 



The colour of his garments 
is changed according to the 
mutations of the years. The 
first and second years (of a ten- 
year cycle) they are blue (or 
green), the third and fourth 
years they are red, the fifth 
and sixth years yellow, the 
seventh and eighth years white, 
and the ninth and tenth years 
black. 



They have cattle-horns, of 



transcribe with the Chinese 
characters pronounced JVah-to- 
sha. 

The pomp and circum- 
stance which surrounded the 
Aztec monarch was most im- 
pressive.^^^ The kings did not 
often appear among their peo- 
ple. Whenever they did appear 
abroad, however, it was with a 
parade that corresponded with 
their other observances.^^* The 
Mexicans had instruments of 
music, consisting of drums, 
horns, and large sea-shells. ^^^ 
Each chief of a city or village 
arrived at the head of his men, 
accompanied by the sound of in- 
struments.''*^ Tangaxoan, king 
of Michoacan, was preceded by 
the music of his palace, and 
accompanied by a brilliant 
court,''*^ The king of Guatema- 
la was surrounded by a cortege 
of noblemen and musicians. ^"^^ 

The names of the five main 
colours are constantly recurring 
as signs and metaphors. They 
are white, black, red, green, and 
yelloic.^'* 

3fontezuma was dressed 
every day in four different 
suits,^^"* and had a different 
dress for every occasion.^°^ Sa- 
hao-un, who mentions numerous 
different varieties of mantles 
worn by the king, says that the 
said mantles are worn because 
of superstitious ideas.''''"* 

Coronado reported that in 



696 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



which the long ones are used 
to contain (some of their) pos- 
sessions, the best of them reach- 
ing (a capacity of) twice ten 
times as much as the capacity 
of a common horn. 



They have horse-carts, cat- 
tle-carts, and deer-carts. 



The people of the country 
raise deer as cattle are raised 
in the Middle Kingdom (China). 



From milk they make kou- 



miss. 



or near Cibola he found certain 
sheep as big as a horse, icith 
very great hornsJ""'^ He adds : 
I have seen their horns so hig 
that it is a wonder to hehold 
their greatness.^"'' 

They have long horns,^^^ 
and they say that every horn 
of theirs iceigheth fifty pounds 
loeight.^"^ 

J3uffalo-horns yield them 
vessels.^^^^ 

This in its literal sense is 
untrue of any and every coun- 
try in the world. It is proba- 
ble that Hwui Shun referred to 
the " three carts " or " three ve- 
hicles,^'' a term used by the 
Buddhists to indicate three 
modes of crossing Sansara to 
Nirvana, as if drawn by sheep, 
oxen, or deer, which shadow 
forth the three degrees of saint- 
ship, and this term is further 
used for three develop)ments of 
Buddhist doctrine}^^^ 

The kings and nobles of the 
Chichimecas Jcept forests of 
€?eer."® Certain natives of Gua- 
temala hept deer in so tame a 
state that they were easily killed 
by the least active soldiers.^^^ 

Milk is, in the Aztec lan- 
guage, designated by the word 
" meraeyallotl," ""^ which means 
literally " agaves' sap." Their 
principal and national drink 
ispidque, made from the Agave 
Americana, from the sap of the 
plant. The liquor obtained is 



RECAPITULATION. 



697 



They have the red pears 
kept unspoiled throughout the 
year; 



and they also have to-pu- 
TAoes. 



The ground is destitute of 



iron. 



but they have copper. 

Gold and silver are not 
valued. In their markets there 
are no taxes or fixed prices. 



When they marry, it is the 
custom for the son-in-law to 
go and erect a house (or cabin) 
outside of the door of the 
dwelling of the young woman 
(whom he desires to marry). 
Morning and evening he sprink- 
les and sweeps (the ground) 
for a year ; and if the young 



at first of a thick white colour, 
and is at all times very intoxi- 
cating^-° 

They make tnany preserves 
from tunas (i. e., prickly-pears), 
the juice of which is so sweet 
that it preserves them perfectly 
without adding any syrup.^'''^ 

This seems to be intended 
for a transcription of the Mexi- 
can word tomatl,^^'^^ from which 
our own word " tomato " was 
derived. The plant was raised 
by the Mexicans, and its fruit 
formed a part of many of their 
dishes. 

The use of iron, though its 
ores are abundant in the coun- 
try, was unknown to the na- 
tives,^^ while cop>per coxdd he 
obtained in abundance. '^'^ 

They made their j^'^irchases 
and sales by barter, each giving 
that ofxohich he had an excess 
for such goods as he might 
need."^^'"^ A very large square 
was set apart in all the princi- 
pal cities of the kingdom for 
the exhibition and sale of the 
various articles of merchandise 
brought to marketJ^*^ 

Among the Apaches the 
lover stakes his horse in front 
cf the young womcui's house, 
and then retires and cnoaits the 
issue. Shoidd the girl favour 
the suitor, his horse is taken by 
her, fed, and secured in front 
of his lodge / but shoidd she 
decline the px^offered honour, she 



y 



698 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



woman is not pleased with him, 
she then sends him away ; but 
if they are mutually pleased, 
then the marriage is completed, 



the marriage ceremonies being 
for the most part like those of 
the Middle Kingdom (China), 



For a father, mother, wife, 
or son, they mourn for seven 
days, without eating ; for a 
grandfather or grandmother 
they mourn for five days with- 
out eating ; for an elder broth- 
er, younger brother, father's 
elder brother, or father's 
younger brother, or for the 
corresponding female relatives, 
or for an elder sister or young- 
er sister, three days without 
eating. 

They set up an image of 



will pay no attentiort to the suf- 
fering steed?^^^ Among the Co- 
co-Maricopas, the lover takes 
his flute, and, seating himself 
deneath a hush near her dwell- 
ing, keeps up a plaintive noise 
for hours together .^^^ In Yu- 
catan it icas the custom of neio- 
ly married pairs to live in cab- 
ins huilt in front of the house 
of their father or father-in-lato, 
during the first few years after 
their man^iage.^^"^ The exist- 
ence in Mexico of the custom 
of sweeping the path of one to 
whom it was the desire to do 
homage, is shown by the fre- 
quent mention made by the 
Spanish chroniclers of the 
sweeping of the path before 
the king,^^' 

For a full statement of the 
numerous and striking resem- 
blances between the marriage 
ceremonies of Mexico and Chi- 
na, see Chapter XXVI. 

W7ien they have lost a rela- 
tive, they weep for four days 
together.^^ They observed ab- 
stinences and fasts for the de- 
ceased, especially in the case of 
a husband who mourned the 
loss of his wife}^'^ The fifth 
day a 2)riest comes to say that 
it is time to proceed with the 
funeral.^ In Michoacan, all 
remained seated for five days 
with bowed heads}^ 

In case of the death of a 



EECAPITULATION. 



699 



the spirit (of the deceased per- 
son), and reverence it and offer 
libations to it morning and 
evening. 



In their mourning usages 
they do not "svear mourning- 
garments or mourning-badges. 



A king who inherits the 
throne does not occupy himself 
with the affairs of the govern- 
ment for the first three years 
after his accession. 



Mexican king, his ashes were 
placed in an urn or casket. On 
the top of this was placed a 
statue of xcoocl or stone, attired 
i?i the royal habiliments, and 
bearing the masJc and insignia, 
and the casket was deposited at 
the feet of the patron deity in 
the chapel. For four days the 
mourners paid constant visits 
to the shri?ie, to manifest their 
sorrow, and to present the offer- 
ings of food, clothes, orjewels.^^^ 
In Yucatan, peopile of condition 
made wooden statues of their 
parents. They preserved these 
statues, xoith much veneration, 
among their idols, and kept 
both statues and idols in the 
oratories of their houses. Upon 
all feast-days, and days of gen- 
eral rejoicing, they made offer- 
ings of food to them.^^^^ 

As no reference to the use 
of mourning-garments in Mexi- 
co is made by any of the his- 
torians, it is evident that the 
Mexicans did not wear them. 

Before the coronation of a 
new monarch could he celebrat- 
ed with fitting solemnity, vic- 
tims for sacrifice must be capt- 
ured in large numbers,*^^ and 
it was always required that the 
king should obtain some victory 
over his enemies, or reduce some 
neighbouring or rebellious prov- 
ince to subjection, before he 
could be crowned or ascend the 
royal throne.-^ 



700 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



The Country of Women is 
situated a thousand li east of 
Fu-sanff. 



Its people's manner of ap- 
pearance is straight erect (or is 
very correct), and their colour 
is (or their countenances are) a 
very pure white. 



Cihuatlan {ineaning " the 
Place or Land of Wotiien") is 
the name from which the south 
wind takes its designation, and 
is applied to an old place upon 
the Pacific Ocean, somewhat 
southerly from Zacatollan. 
This place was said by some to 
lie at a distance of ten days' 
journey,""® and by others to be 
only three days' journey, from 
the city of Mexico."^" 

These " people " are the 
monkeys of Southern Mexico. 

Where monkeys arefoimd, 
the idea seems often to have oc- 
curred to tnen to account for 
the resemblance of the monkey 
to mankind by snaking of the 
first a fallen or changed form 
of the latter^''^ This error of 
considering monkeys as be- 
longing to the human race gave 
rise to the numerous tales of 
a land of pygmies. In the Ha- 
pale CEdipus, one of the monk- 
eys of Southern Mexico, the 
hreast, the arms, the abdomen, 
the forepart of the legs, and 
the four extremities are lohite?^ 
The capuchin monkey varies 
as to colour. The white-throated 
species has a flesh-coloured face, 
and hair of a beautiful lohite 
colour over the cheeks, the fore- 
arms, and the breast?'^ The 
largest, when they stand erect, 
as they sometimes do, tipon two 
feet, almost equal a man in 
stature.^"^^ Possibly the name 



RECAPITULATION". 



701 



Their bodies are hairy, and 
they have long locks, the ends 
of which reach to the ground. 

At the second or third 
month, bickering, they enter 
the water (come down to the 
low-lands, or to the streams, 
or perhaps "enter upon a mi- 
gration," the character shui 
meaning not only " water," but 
also "a trip from one place to 
another"). 



They then become preg- 
nant. 

They bear their young at 
the sixth or seventh month 
(probably of gestation, but pos- 
sibly of the year). 

The female-people are des- 



of the mountain, Iztaccihuatl 
(i.e., "the White Woman"), 
gave rise to the story that the 
inhabitants of the Land of 
Women were of a very pure 
white colour. 

Their "long locks" or 
queues are their tails. 

They go in troops in the 
trees, and it is pai'ticttlarli/ 
during the rainy season that 
they are found thus collected to- 
gether.''^ 

The Mexican year probably 
commenced some time during 
the latter part of February (or 
about the time that the Chinese 
year commences), and the sec- 
ond or third month therefore 
nearly coincides with our 
month of May. In Mexico the 
rainy season begins, as a rule, 
in the first half of May ^"^^ 

Pliny says of the pygmies 
that they in the spring-time 
all descend together in an army 
to the sea^^^ 

The " bickering " or chat- 
tering mentioned by Hwui 
Shan is characteristic of monk- 
eys. 

Monkeys, in common with 
most other animals, have a rut- 
ting-season in the spring. 

In tlie lower Simiadce geS' 
tation lasts about seven months, 
but in the Hapalinoi only three 
months.^^^^ 

In the female quadrumana 



702 



AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



titute of breasts in front of 
their chests, but behind, at the 
nape of the neck (or back of 
the head), they have hair-roots 
(short hair, or a bunch of hair, 
or a hairy organ), and in the 
midst of the white hair it is 
pleasing to the taste (or there 
is juice). 



They nurse their young for 
one hundred days, and they 
can then walk. When three or 
four years old, they become 
fully grown. 



there is no protrusion of the 
breast, as in the human being^^^ 
and Hwui Shan may have been 
led to make this curious state- 
ment by seeing the females 
leaping among the trees with 
their young clinging to their 
backs and holding fast about 
their necks. They skip from 
bough to bough with the young 
ones hanging at the old ones' 
back.'''' 

The young ones are carried 
about on the backs of their 
mothers, round whose necks 
they put their arms like in- 
fants.'''"' 

As to the head, long hair is 
found thereon in Ilapale CEdi- 
pus, and long hair is devel- 
oped from the shoulders in Ha- 
jmle Hwneralifer.^'^^ The top 
of the head of the Ilapale (Edi- 
pus is ornamented with long 
white hair, xchich forms a spe- 
cies of plume (falling down upon 
the nape of the neck and back 
of the head), xchich is all the 
more remarkable from the fact 
that the rest of the head is bare?"^ 
The accounts of the pyg- 
mies say of them : 

Their females bear young 
tohen five years old, and they 
become aged at the age of eight 
years."^^ 

They are married xohen they 
are only half a year old, and 
get children; and they live 
only six years, or seven at the 



RECAPITCLATIOX. 



703 



When they see a human 
being, they are afraid and flee 
to one side. 



They venerate (or are de- 
voted to) their husbands (or 
mates). 

They eat the "salt-plant." 
Its leaves resemble (those of 
the plant called by the Chinese) 
the siE-HAO (a species of ab- 
sinthe or wormwood), but its 
odour is more fragrant and its 
taste is saltish. 



most, and he that Uveth eight 
years, men think him right 
jyassing old}^^^ 

A characteristic description 
of monkeys that " flee to one 
side " and then peep out to see 
the passer-by, when they think 
that they have attained a place 
of safety. 

Monkeys are noted for their 
faithfulness and devotion to 
their mates. 

The Mexican dictionaries 
define "Iztauhyatl" as ab- 
sinthe,""^ or wormwood.*^' This 
word is a compound, of " Iz- 
tatl," salt""* (the tl being 
dropped in the compound, as is 
the rule in such cases), Avith a 
form of the verbal root " hue- 
ya," to grow,*" with the termi- 
nation " tl." It is a sweet-smell- 
ing herW^ Bisons,'"^ horses, 
and cattle feed upon species of 
artemisia, and in winter they 
form the principal food of the 
herds of the Kalmucks and the 
Kiroruis of Asia.^""* 



In the nineteenth chapter, fifteen facts were enumerated 
which were mentioned by Hwui Shan, and which were of such 
a nature that it seemed impossible that he could have known 
anything about them unless he had actually made the journey 
which he said that he had taken. To those statements we may 
now add the following : 

16. The country found some six or seven thousand miles 
southeasterly from the land of Great Han (Alaska) received its 
name from a remarkable plant or tree growing there. 

IT. The first sprouts of this plant resembled those of the 
bamboo. 



iv 



704 AN" INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

18. They were edible. 

19. Thread was spun from its fiber. 

20. Two kinds of cloth, one coarse and one finer, were made 
from this thread. 

21. And paper was also made from the fiber. 

22. An edible fruit was also found in this land which was 
of the shape of a pear, but which was red in colour. 

23. It was of such a nature that it could be preserved and 
kept throughout the year. 

24. In constructing their houses, they used boards for hold- 
ing the mud or adobe in shajoe until it was dry, similar to the 
boards used for the same purpose in China. 

25. They had no citadels or walled cities. 

26. They had a species of writing. 

27. Either in their laws or in their religious beliefs, or in 
both, they had two places of confinement. 

28. The place reserved for the worst criminals was in the north. 

29. Children commenced the active duties of life, the boys 
at the age of eight (as the Chinese reckon age) and the girls at 
nine years. 

30. The people had the custom of holding great assemblages 
at which serious crimes were judged. 

31. These were held in an " excavated tumulus." 

32. The custom existed of inflicting capital punishment by 
suffocating the criminals in ashes. 

33. The relatives were punished, as well as the criminal, in 
cases of heinous crimes. 

34. The highest rank of noblemen were known by the title 
of " Tui-lu " (Teuli or Teule, as it is spelled by some Spanish 
authors). 

35. The king was accompanied by musicians when he walked 
abroad. 

36. Whose instruments were horns and drums. 

37. He had the custom of wearing garments of different col- 
ours at different times " because of superstitious ideas." 

38. Very large and long horns were found in the country. 

39. The people raised deer. 

40. They made a drink resembling koumiss. 

41. Either from milk or from something that was given that 
name. 



RECAPITULATIOK 705 

42. They had no h'on. 

43. But had copper. 

44. They did not value gold or silver. 

45. The marriage ceremonies resembled those of China. 

46. They kept statues of deceased relatives, to which they 
offered food, etc. 

47. They did not wear mourning-garments. 

48. The king did not fully succeed to the throne until some 
length of time after the death of his predecessor. 

49. Some three hundred miles southeasterly from this land 
there was a place known as "the Country of Women." 

50. Which was inhabited by peculiar beings, whose bodies 
were hairy, and who had long locks, queues, or tails hanging to 
the ground. 

51. They had a rutting-season in the spring. 

52. The period of gestation was six or seven months (or pos- 
sibly only three or four months). 

53. They carried their young upon their backs. 

54. They had long hair at the back of the head, which was 
whitish at the roots. 

55. They were able to walk when one hundred days old. 

56. They became fully grown when three or four years 
old. 

57. They were faithful and affectionate to their mates. 

58. A plant called the " salt-plant " grew in the country, de- 
riving its name from its taste. 

59. This plant resembled a sj^ecies of absinthe, 

60. But its odour was more fragrant. 

It passes the bounds of belief that Hwui Shan could have in- 
vented all these statements, many of them true of no other coun- 
try in the world than the one lying at the distance and in the 
direction from China that he said that the land visited by him 
was to be found ; and his story can not be explained upon any 
other theory than that he had actually made the journey which 
he so truthfully and soberly described. 

VII. 

The fiber and the transparent mirror, which he brought back 
with him, were just such articles as a traveler would be likely 
45 



706 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

to take from Mexico, and the latter, at least, could not have 
been obtained from any other country in the world. 

vin. 

There exists in Mexico a tradition of Hwui Shan's visit. This 
gives his name and title of Hwui Shin, bhikshu, as Wi-Shi-peco- 
cha ; tells the district of the Pacific coast upon which he landed ; 
describes his complexion, his beard, and his dress ; relates the 
doctrines that he preached ; mentions the success that he met in 
his mission, and states the reason for his return to Asia. Tra- 
ditions also exist of the visit of the party of Buddhist priests 
mentioned by Hwui Shan, from whom he seems in some way 
to have become separated. 

IX. 

The religious customs and beliefs of the nations of Mexico, 
Yucatan, and Central America, their pyramids, their architect- 
ure, their arts, their calendar, and almost innumerable little prac- 
tices of their daily life, as they existed at the time of the S^janish 
conqiiest, show such surprising coincidences with the details of 
Asiatic beliefs and Asiatic civilization that many independent 
observers, who have either known nothing of the story of Hwui 
Shan, or who have paid no attention to it, have become con- 
vinced, from these coincidences alone, that there must have been 
communication of some nature between the two regions of the 
world, and that this communication had probably taken place 
since the beginning of the Christian era. 

Among these coincidences the following may be noted, i. e. : 

1. The existence of monasteries and nunneries, said to have 
been founded by Quetzalcoatl, the " Revered Visitor." 

2. The vows of continence taken by their inmates. 

3. The fact that these vows were not necessarily for life. 

4. The daily routine of life of these ascetics, consisting of 
watching, of chanting hymns to the gods, of sweeping the tem- 
ples and their yards, etc. 

5. These priests were the educators of the children. 

6. They were divided into orders, and some portion of their 
number were of superior rank, and governed the others. 

7. They lived upon alms. 

8. They occasionally retired alone into the desert, to lead a 
life of prayer and penance in solitude. 



KEOAPITULATION. 707 

9. They were known by the title Tlamacazque or Tlama, cor- 
responding to the title of Lama given to the Buddhist priests of 
Asia. 

10. It was thought best to eat but once a day, and then at 
noon. 

11. They celebrated once each year a " feast of the dead," 
at which they supposed that the hungry spirits of their deceased 
friends returned to be fed. 

12. They worshiped upon large truncated earthen pyramids. 

13. These were covered with a layer of stone or brick, and 
the whole covered with plaster or stucco. 

14. They used the false arch of overlapping stones, but not 
the true arch. 

15. The inner walls of their temples were coated with stucco 
or plaster, which was ornamented with grotesque paintings. 

16. A seated cross-legged figure was found in one of their 
temples, resembling in its attitude, in the lion-headed couch 
upon which it was seated, in the niche in which it was found, 
and in its position in the temple, the statues of Buddha found in 
Buddhist temples. 

17. The tradition of the conception of Huitzilopochtli closely 
resembles the Asiatic stories of the conception of Buddha. 

18. They represented one of their gods as holding a mirror 
in his hand, in which he saw all the actions of men. 

19. They believed that the inhabitants of the world had been 
four times destroyed— by water, by winds, by earthquakes, and 
by fire — and re-created after each destruction. 

20. They had the custom of placing the walls of their tem- 
ples facing the four cardinal points, and decorating each wall 
with a distinctive colour. 

21. They buried a small green stone with the corpses of the 
dead. 

22. Their idols were always clothed, and were never offen- 
sive to modesty. 

23. The custom of tying the corners of the garments of the 
bride and groom together constituted one of the most important 
of the marriage ceremonies. 

24. Marriage was not consummated until the fourth day after 
the ceremony. 

25. They placed in the hands of young children, a few days 



708 AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

after their birth, toys symbolical of the instruments of craft or 
of household labour which it was expected that they would use in 
after life. 

26. The long band of cloth worn about their waist was pre- 
cisely like that worn by the natives of India. 

27. They wore quilted cotton armour similar to that worn in 
Asia. 

28. Their cakes of meal were similar to those made in India. 

29. Their books were folded back and forth like those of 
Siam. 

30. They played a game called patoll% which seems to have 
been substantially the same game as the pachisi of the Hindoos. 

31. They understood the arts of melting and casting the 
precious metals and of working jewels, attributing their knowl- 
edge to Quetzalcoatl. 

32. But they knew nothing of the use of milk or of any food 
prepared from it. 

33. Their anchors were like those used in Asia, with four 
hooks without a barb. 

34. They understood the art of constructing suspension- 
bridges ; and 

35. Their calendar showed so many resemblances to that used 
by many of the nations of Asia, that from this fact alone Hum- 
boldt was convinced that there was some connection between 
the civilizations of the two regions of the world. 

Almost any one of these coincidences might be fortuitous, but 
it seems impossible that so many coincidences could have existed 
unless the civilization of one continent was, to some extent, bor- 
rowed from that of the other. 



The fact that the civilized, or partly civilized, nations of 
America were all found upon or near the Pacific coast, indicates 
that their civilization was derived from Asia. 

XI. 

For any difficulties or seeming untruths in the statements of 
Hwui Shan the following allowances should be made : 

1. The first explorers of any newly found land are usually 
deceived as to some one or more points, being misled by tales of 



EECAPITULATION. • 709 

the natives, oftea but imperfectly understood, and having no 
possibility of rectifying their errors by comparing their experi- 
ence with that of any other person. 

2. Hwui Shan was probably a native of Coph^ne, and under- 
stood Chinese but imperfectly at the time that he tried to de- 
scribe to Yu Kie the countries that he had visited, so that the 
latter probably failed to correctly understand some of the state- 
ments that he attempted to make. 

3. The account was written down before printing was in- 
vented, and some errors have crept in in copying it, as is evident 
from the variations in different texts. 

4. Although the Chinese language changes more slowly than 
almost any other, it is probable that there have been many im- 
portant changes in the last fourteen centuries, and that many of 
the characters do not now express precisely the meaning which 
they were then used to convey. 

5. Many changes must have occurred in the countries visited 
by Hwui Shan during the thousand years that elapsed after his 
visit before America was rediscovered by Columbus ; and 

6. The indigenous civilization was so soon replaced by that 
of the Spaniards, and the only chroniclers who had an opportun- 
ity of seeing it, as it existed when the country was first explored, 
felt 80 little interest in the details of the daily life of the people, 
and of their knowledge, their arts, and their religious belief, that 
the accounts which we possess on these points are, at the best, 
exceedingly imperfect, and many proofs which then existed of 
the truth of Hwui Shan's story may now have been long swept 
out of existence, leaving no evidence behind that they were ever 
to have been found. 

Attention may be called, in conclusion, to the fact that the 
different points presented in support of the credibility of Hwui 
Shan's account are not connected together like the links of a 
chain, which is no stronger than its weakest part, and the rupt- 
ure of one of which severs the whole chain. They are rather 
like the ten thousand threads with which Gulliver was fastened 
to the earth, many weak in themselves, many easily broken ; but, 
after breaking numbers of them, thousands still remained, bind- 
ing him to the earth as firmly as ever. Doubtless, errors will be 
found in the arguments that have been urged, and many of them, 



YIO AN mGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 

when considered by themselves alone, will seem but weak ; and 
yet, after breaking here one cord of connection and there an- 
other, it will be found that numerous links remain, whose united 
strength binds together the civilizations of Asia and America 
with a power that can not be overcome. 

Nearly fourteen centuries have passed since Hwui Shan — led 
by his religious faith to carry the feeble rush-light that shone 
upon his path to illuminate the lives of those who lay in darkness 
— pressed on from one unknown land to another, preaching the 
faith by which his life was guided. . Of the toils and dangers that 
he underwent, we can catch but a glimpse, through the mists of 
these fourteen hundred years, but we have reason to believe that, 
of the company of five that started, he alone returned to Asia ; 
that he was an old man when he reached China, and that he 
probably never saw his native land again. The Chinese believed 
his story, but knew nothing more of the land which was visited 
by him. European and American scholars have for many years 
known something in regard to his statements ; but for lack of 
sufficient careful investigation many have been inclined to dis- 
credit them. 

It is the hope of the author that the proof herein presented, 
that Hwui Shan discovered America a thousand years before it 
was known to Europeans, will be found sufficient to induce the 
world to give to this faithful missionary of the Buddhist faith 
the honour to which he is entitled, so that he may no longer 
remain 

AN INGLORIOUS COLUMBUS. 



APPENDIX. 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES AND REFERENCES. 

In the following table, the numerators of the pseudo-fractions (which, 
as will be seen, follow one another in regular order, with the exception of 
some omitted numbers) indicate the number of the reference ; wliile the 
denominators indicate the page of the work, below the title of which the 
fraction is placed, upon which the quotation may be found. 

Thus, for instance, the tirst reference in Chapter I is given by the 
number 1880. Turning to the Appendix, and looking along the numera- 
tors of the fractions until that number is found, it will be seen that its de- 
nominator is 5, and that the fraction in question is found below " Le 
Bouddhisme: son Histoire," etc., by L. de Milloue ; thus indicating that 
the quotation or reference may be found on the fifth page of that work. 



The Natural «& Moral History of the Indies. By Father Joseph de 
Acosta. Reprinted from the English translated edition of Edward 
Grimston. Svo. London, 1880. Vol. I. 



TTTJJ TBT> TST- 

Histoire Naturelle et Morale des Indes. Par Joseph Acosta. Traduite 
en Frangois par Robert Regnault Cauxois. 8vo. Paris, 1600. 

Oongr&s International des Amdricanistes— Compte-Eendu de la Premiere 
Session. Nancy, 1875. Vol. I. 8vo. Paris, 1875. 

An article read by M. Lucien Adam — condensed translation. 
Reference No. 17. 
Congr&s International des Amdricanistes— Compte-Eendu de la Seconde 
Session. Vol. I. Svo. Luxembourg, 1877. 

Extract from an article entitled '■ La Tres-Ancienne Amerique," 
by Mr. Francis A. Allen. 
Reference No. 19. 

The American Bisons, Living and Extinct. By J. A. Allen. 4to. Cam- 
bridge, 1876. 

21 28 23 24 26 26 2S .293JL34. 3 2 3 3 



712 APPENDIX. 

The New American Cyclopedia, Published by D. Appleton & Co. 16 
vols., 8vo. New York, 1872. 
Eeference No. 41. 

American Philological Magazine. August, 1869. 

U' 

An Account of the Importation of American Cochineal Insects into Hin- 
dostan. By James Anderson, M. D. Madras, 1795. 
Eeference No. 53. 

Vocabulario Manuel de las Lenguas Castellana y Mexicana. Por Pedro 
de Arenas. 16mo. Pueblo, Mexico, 1831. 

n- 

Atlas zur Entdeckungsgeschichte Americas. Aus Handscriften der K. 
Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek der K. Universitaet und des Hauptsconser- 
vatoriums der K. B. Armee. Herausgegeben von Friedrich Kunst- 
mann, Karl von Spruner und Georg M. Thomas. Atlas folio. 
Munchen, 1859. 
(The references indicate the number of the map, not the page.) 

61 62 63 64 

ttj ~i~i Tof irt* 
Histoire Naturelle des Singes et des Makis. Par J. B. Audebert. Folio. 
Paris. 8th year. 
The Sai (Simla Capucina). 

Eeference No. 71. 
The Pinche — Simla (Edipus (Hapale (Edipus). 
Eeference No. 72. 

Description G6n6rale de I'Amerique. Par M. d' Avity. Folio. Paris, 1637. 
Eeference No. 76. 

Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, for the year 1798. 
Letter from Mr. Stephen Badger. 

86 

\ Prehistoric Nations. By John D. Baldwin, A. M. 8vo. New York, 1873. 

91 9 3 9_4 
334' 3^T' ToT' 

\ The "Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft : 
^ The Native Eaces of the Pacific States of North America. 5 vols., 

8vo. New York, 1878. 

Vnl T 1.01 1.0 2 iO 3 JO 5. 1_0 6 107 1_Q_8 109 110 112 

1 13 114 115 117 121 122 123 J_2_4 12.1 VqI TT ^M-. 

"2X45 ¥6T> T77» Trt> T2Tj ¥T6' 6 3 T 7 T 1> 17 r '^ "^' ^^'> ^J ' 

15 2 164 1 5 S 1 58 1 59 160 1 61 162 1 6_3. lAA JjSl. IJlS.^ 

~irr> TOT' TT9> TTJJ T47» 145' T4T' 17 3? T79' 1805 1865 1945 

168 169 170 17 1 17 2 173 174 111. IIA 178 I44 180 

1J005 "Sir35 -SirTi Trot5 2 0^5 #095 2 125 T135 T175 2 185 ^Tr05 T215 

181 18 2 183 186 187 188 191 1^4 1_96 JL9.A IJLl M% 

ir5T5 2T3^5 TriH5 3^T75 WT5 T2T5 3 3 75 ?4 35 3X^5 34 45 T5T5 TTJf 

203 204 207 208 209 210 211_ 2.12 21 6 217 21A SSO 

"38T5 "5T9"5 Tr6» STT5 318 15 rtjs f 185 tlT5 T43» TBt' TJT 4T^5 



APPENDIX. 713 

221 2_2_2 223 224 225 226 Z2X SA8 229 2JJL 2^2 ^13. 

46T 473» 4TT» 1TT> 4785 480> 482J 4 8?' 4S3' 484> 4 8T' 486> 

234 236 2 37 240 241 24_3 24A » iA giS. SAJ. 248 250 

"BoITj "g08J T08J Tth TTSi iriOi gT3> r2 8> TStf 55 9> Tot) TFOJ 

2S2 2 5.3 25 5 256 25 7 2_^5^ 2 5_a 260 261 262 263 2 6_i 

¥8 4> T8 5"' F05' 606' 60T 609' Til' 612' 61 f' 614' 6 18' 6 2 6' 

265 267 2_a5. 269 270 2,7.3. .8J4 .8JL5. 27 9 280 2_8..1_ 2^2 

■638' TT 6' 699' 7 0?' 706' 7 2 8' 7 3?' 7405 7 8' 768' 783' 801' 

■i-83. Vol III -M-i -MJ- -MJ- iO-^ 3.')-3. SJia 30l9. itlO 311 
•g-g-j. V Ul. X-LA., 47,-3^^, 3^g-j 13 05 13 15 2 3 85 2X3' 2nr5 2X3> 

312 313 3i_4 3X5. 317 31A |_20 3 21 i22 324, 325 AlA 

2tE' ¥t9J ?695 ?7 0' ?73' 3^8' F9T5 31?' 3T2' 3T15 lfT75 3 9 65 

327 328 33 L 33A 336 3S3. A3 9 S4(}. i4J. 3„42 3^3. 1A4 

IT9' 436' 437' 438' 440' 4Tl' ITl' 4 f4' 456' 4 5T' ¥635 4 6 ?5 

345 34 6 347 348 14 9 35J> 3 5J. 3A1 3 5_3 15_5 UL6. 357 

469^' 469' 47S' TTSi 489' T325 T365 3375 538' 7 2 3' 7245 731' 

Vol IV S3X 3-SA. 3_6_5. ifijS. 368 3J_2. SJJl SJA 3JJl 3J_7. 
¥U1. J.V., ,^, 16 35 1805 181' ¥0 5' ^14' 3 ?> 3 ST' 3 4 95 3 7 25 

379 380 384 3 85 388 3 8 9 393 394 395 396 397 398 

T815 3 8 3' TT6' 'F13' "5X55 T5T5 6 13' T24' eTB"' 6 2 8' ¥7 05 TTo' 

Vnl V 4.0-1 iJtS 404 405 UJB. 407 ASLS. iJLg. iJ 4 :4_1_6. 

V Ul. v., -54, 3J-, 35-5 41, 4 1 5 X?^' 43' glT' 1 oT> 2 15 

411 4JL8. 430 421 423 424 425 426 427 428 42 9 43 2 

"gTr95 3445 3T?5 3"T2^' 407' 4135 4345 4525 4605 4 7 3' 4^81"' 5095 

433 436 4 3 9 4 4_0 

5¥95 T385 6 175 "5"2 1* 

The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft : 

History of Mexico. 2 vols., 8vo. San Francisco, 1883. 

Vol I A5J- X62 .4 53 4_5_4 ASA AAl 45.5. 46^0. 4J1 A6_2 

V Ul. -I'j TT^5 TFJ5 fT^i 13 5' 12 9' 2 3 7' 384' 2 8 9' 3 9T5 4 3 85 

463 464 465_ A_6 6 A_6_7 Vol IT A-'UL 4J_8 473 
T4 4 5 T47' ?5 95 6 2T5 6 9T- ^ ^^' ^^'5 ^1 5 60^' 363- 

History of Central America. 2 vols., 8vo. San Francisco, 1883. 

Vol. I., iU' Vol. II., ffi, m- 

History of the North Mexican States. 8vo. San Francisco, 1884. 
(Quotation from advance sheets, by the kindness of the author, and his 
assistant, Mr. Henry L. Oak.) 
Vol. I., W- 

The Early American Chroniclers. By Hubert Howe Bancroft. 8vo. 
San Francisco, 1883. 

w- 

Papers of the Archceological Institute of America. American Series. II. 
Eeport of an Archaeological Tour in Mexico in 1881. By A. F. 
Bandelier. 8vo. Boston, 1884. 

497 4.9 8 Sa.O, 501 
17 3' 1^45 ¥2 95 ttt' 

Reports of the Peabody Museum of American Archasology and Ethnol- 
ogy. Vol. II. 8vo. Cambridge, 1880, 

Article entitled " On the Art of War and Mode of Warfare of the 
Ancient Mexicans," by Ad. F. Bandelier. 

602 50 3 S.O_A 10 5 60 6 50 7 5 08 
1105 11?' 117' itty Tl3' IFJ' T39* 

Article entitled " On the Distribution and Tenure of Lands, and the 
Customs with Respect to Inheritance, among the Ancient Mexicans," 
by Ad. F. Bandelier. 

3885 'S»^> 394' foT* 



714 APPENDIX. 

Reports of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnol- 
ogy. Vol. II. 8vo. Cambridge, 1880. 

Article entitled " On the Social Organization and Mode of Govern- 
ment of the Ancient Mexicans," by Ad. F. Bandelier. 

621 584 525 5 SJl 6.2J. 628 
6 0T> Tf8> TS^f "5 9 8J 6 3 6> STl' 

The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal. Vol. V., No. 2. April, 
1883. 

Article entitled "The Native Pvaces of Colombia," by E. G. 
Barney. 



\ 



Personal Narrative of Exploration3 and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, 

California, Sonora, and Chihuahua. By John Eussell Bartlett. 2 vols. 

8vo. New York, 1854. 

Vol I ^-^J- Mri-^ ^^4 -S-a-fi Vol II -5-i^ ^4.2 443 644 
V Ul. X., 2 3 0, -g^^j, 2 7 8J 44T '^ "^* ^^'i 1 S7) 1 9 U 2^25 2TTJ 

64 5 5_i6. 547 548 64 9 
273? 351> T63> 483> ^S'S'* 

Travels through North and South Carolina, etc. By William Bartram. 
8vo. London, 1792. 

Reference No. 550 — Introduction, p. xix. 

Journal Asiatique. Third Series, Vol. VIII. : number for November, 
1839. 

Article entitled " An Account of the Shan Hai King, a Fabulous 
Cosmography attributed to the Great Yu," by M. Bazin, Sr. 

65 1 652 
3 1T> 34 0* 

The Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king : a Life of Buddha. Translated from Chinese 
into English by Samuel Beal. 8vo. Oxford, 1883. 

iJ5. 656 6 57 5_5_J_ 
2 J 3 J 38 > 39 • 

Abstract of Four Lectures on Buddhist Literature in China. Delivered at 
University College, London, by Samuel Beal. 8vo. London, 1882. 
Reference No. 561, p. xii. Reference No. 562, p. xv. 

6 64 5_6_5 16_a. 5 67 
T2 > 92 J 123> ITS' 

A Trip to Mexico. By H. C. R. Becher. 8vo. Toronto, 1880. 

A,!! AlA 673 574 676 
T3 5 114> T63> TT3J TST- 

New Tracks in North America. By William A. Bell, M. A. 8vo. SeCv 
end edition. London, 1870. 

582 5_83 685 686 689 691 592 

The Kansas City Review of Science and Industry. Vol. V., No. 7. No- 
vember, 1881. 

Article entitled " The American Horse," by E. L. Berthoud. 
Reference No. 596. 



APPENDIX. 715 

The Kansas City Review of Science and Industry. Yol. V., No. 10. 
February, 1882. 

Article entitled "Explorations in Idaho and Montana," by E. L. 
Berthoud. 

Reference No. 598. 

Glossarium Azteco-Latinum et Latino- Aztecum. Cura et Studio Bernar- 
dini Biondelli CoUectum ac Digestum. Quarto. Milan, 1869. 

601 6 2. 6_0_3 604 605. 6 06 SJ> 1 6_0_8 JJJ) 6_1 1 6 1 2. MS 
1 1 5 Tl? J 20 5^T~5~Jl> 43 J 4?> 46' 6 2"> "6?>~B"J' T 5 > 

&A± 3iA 616 .6 17 6_18. 612. 3-?0 
7 8 > 1 gT> TgT> T8 » 3 > ^9 > 6¥ • 

Histoire des Nations Oivilisees du Mexique et de rAm6rique-Centralo. 
Par M. l'Abb6 Brasseur de Bourbourg. 4 vols., 8vo. Paris, 1857. 

Vol T 621 622 62_3 i2.A &t&- 128. .62_9 630 631 632 
¥ Ul. J.., , J , , 3 , 5^4 , J y J, J jy, "2^53, 2,7J 278? 3375 TTS^' 

Vol TT -SAi 6A2. 643. 1_4_A 6JL5. 64 6 6JL7 SAA 6S1 654 

6.5 5 657 65 8 6 5_9 660 6_6 2 663 6 66 667 Ai8. 669 6Jfi. 
l^O"' iTSi 17 6J T86' 18 9' 2 y"j5 4 11' "5 2 3' 55 8> 5G'95 "669' "5^7 2' 

m672 6JL3. Vnl TTT 681 ^8 2 .£_8_3. 684 685 _6 8_1 JL8 8 

' 373' 674* ^ "^- ^^^i Tl > T:T^» T^T^' ^¥ ' FT' Jl ' ST"' 

189 6_9_0 692 693 694 696 696 697 699 500L 151 J02 

3 1 ' 34 ' 437' 4TT' 4 6 3' 4 6 7' 47T' TS3' 4 8 9' 5^0 6' 4 9T' 5lT' 

704 705 706 707 708 709 71 711 714 ii.5_ il6 71 7 

33T' 5t¥» 56 5^' 55T> 5ST' 5 7 3' TTO' 62T' 64 4' 6 4 8' 6^7' 6T9' 

71 8 719 721 i2g. 724 125 "Vol TV "? 3 1 i3^ J_3_4 73_6 

1T75 TS7' 6T¥ ' 6 ri ' TtT' 6 55' * «J1' ^ v ., 3 , j, , 1 3 , "j ^ , 

736 137 738 739 lAl. _7Jl2 743 144 745. 1A.6. 1.4.8 760 

33^' 1T5' 16 0' 208' Tl 8' 2 2T' ^92' 4 62' 33T' 54 0' To9> 658' 

XSZ 15._3_ XSA. U.4 156 751 

681F' 7 13' 7 4 8' 7 7 2' STT' ¥T0* 

Monuments Anciens du Mexique. Texte redige par M. I'Abb^ Brasseur 
de Bourbourg. Atlas folio. Paris, 1866. 

Introduction, -\y-, -'j^. Reference No. Y63 ; Avant Propos, p. 
xix. References Nos. 766 and 767; Explication des Planches, 
par M. de Waldeck, pp. iv. et v. 

Lettre a M. Leon de Rosny sur la Decouverte de Documents Relatifs a la 
Haute Antiquity Am^ricaine. Par M. I'Abb^ Brasseur de Bourbourg. 
8to. Paris, 1869. 

The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal. Vol. III., No. 5. Foo- 
chow, October, 1870. 

Article entitled "Fu-sang, or "Who Discovered America," by E. 
Bretschneider, M. D. 
Reference No. 774. 

On the Knowledge Possessed by the Ancient Chinese, of the Arabs, etc. 
By E. Bretschneider, M. D. 8vo. London, 1871. 

221* 

Notes on Chinese Medifeval Travelers to the TTest. By E. Bretschneider, 
M. D. 8vo. Shanghai, 1875. 

Reference No. 781, p. ii., ^^, ^, ^, ^%S ^/, W' W' 

W' W' W' m, m- 




716 APPENDIX. 

~^The Myths of the New "World. By Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 8vo. New 
York, 1876. 

801 803 804 8 05 8 6 3J>J 80_9. .SJLQ. 3A± 

The Names of the Gods in the Kiche Myths. By Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 
8vo. Philadelphia, 1881. 

The Books of Ohilan Balam. By Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 8vo. Phila- 

idelphia [1882]. " 
The Maya Chronicles. Edited by Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 8vo. Phila- 
delphia, 1882. 

82 1 8 2.2. 823 
"83"? Tl 8> 12T 

American Hero-Myths. By Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 8vo. Philadel- 
phia, 1882. 

83 6. 12 1 828 828. 830 831 8 3.2 8 3_3 8 34 835 
"T5 ' 12"15 T^T» T29J I'SJy ■^ITJ ¥20? '^22> 223> 23T' 

Contributions to American Ethnology. Vol. V. Quarto. "Washington, 
1882. 

Article entitled " A Study of the Manuscript Troano," by Cyrus 
Thomas ; introduction by Daniel G. Brinton, M. D. 
Eeference No. 841, p. xxxii. 

La Croix Paienne et Chr^tienne. Traduction faite sur la Deuxi^me Edi- 
tion, par Mourant Brock, M. A. 16mo. Paris, 1881. 

84R 8 41 8_4 8 849 
~S~y 3 J 4 1 > ~I^ • 

The American Philological Magazine. No. for August, 1869. 

Article entitled ''Where was Fusang?" by the Kev. Nathan 
Brown, D. D. 

850 
"81 • 

Essai sur le Pali. Par E. Burnouf et Chr. Lassen. 8vo. Paris, 1826. 

85 1 JJ_2 
7 9 J 92 • 

Introduction a I'Histoire du Buddhisme Tndien. Par E. Burnouf. Sec- 
ond ed. Large 8vo. Paris, 1876. 

■ 853 8 54 85 5 856 8 5 7 8 5 8. Alfl 
3 7 J 2T8 ' 27T' 'g'T 9'» SOU 4Tr9' 487' 

Congres Provincial des Orientalistes Fran?ais. Compte-Rendu de la Ses- 
sion Inaugurale. Levallois, 1874. 8vo. Paris, 1875. 

Article entitled "Le Chan-hai-king (Livre des Montagnes et des 
Mers)." Traduction du Chinois, par Emile Burnouf. 

860 
13S* 



APPENDIX. 



717 



Ueber die Aztekiscben Ortsnamen. Von Hrn. Buschinann. Read before 
tbe German Academy of Sciences, Nov. 11 and Dec. 9, 1852. Quarto. 

«61^ 86| 863_ 864 _ 868_ 8 6 9 _ 870 _ J44_ 8T2 _ 8T 3 8T4 877 8 7 8 



TTS"? 6lf> 6 17' ¥19? 6 3Tj 63T' "STT' 6~3T' 6 3 7 J 6 3 9J 6 3 95 6 6 3> 6 6 3' 
8J19 8.40 .8.8 1 882 8,^3. ^84 iM. 18 6 8_ii 8^10 892 89JL 
6 6T5 6 9 8» 7 05 7 15 7 3J 7 O^J 7 75 7 1T5 72 95 7715 78 05 TTT" 

Die Spuren der Aztekischen Sprache. Von Job. Carl Ed. Buscbmann. 
Quarto. Berlin, 1859. 

1.0 1 904 9_0_5 9 0_6 908 9 09 
5T"5 785 935"g75 1075 1 "55' 

C. Julii Osesaris, Commentarii de Bello Gallico. 

References Nos. 916 to 919, inclusive. Bk. V., ch. 12; Bk. V., 
cb. 14; Bk. VI., cb. 26; and Bk. VI., cb. 27. 

Compendio del Arte de la Lengua Mexicana del P. Horacio Carocbi. Por 
el P. Ignacio de Parades. Small quarto. Mexico, 1759. 

921 932 

6 5 39- 

(Envres de Don Bartbelemi de las Casas, Eveque de Cbiapa. Accom- 
pagnees de Notes par J. A. Llorente. 2 vols., 8vo. Paris, 1822. 

Vol I -9-25- _9_2_e. • 
V Ul. X., YS > 46 • 

Des Affinit^s de la Langue Basque avec les Idiomcs du Nouveau-Monde. 
Par M. H. de Cbarencey. 8vo. Paris, 1867. 

Des Couleurs considiir^es comrae Symboles des Points de FHorizon chez les 
Peuples du Nouveau-Monde. Par H. de Cbarencey. 8vo. Paris, 1877. 

931 9 3.2 933 9 34 

7 5 l9 5 30 5 39^* 

Cbronologie des Ages ou Soleils, d'apres la Mythologie Mexicaine. Par 
M. de Cbarencey. Svo. Caen, 1878. 

Tbe History of Paraguay. Written originally in Frencb, by tbe celebrated 
Fatber Cbarlevoix. 2 vols., 8vo. Dublin, 1769. 

Vol T &AX 942 943 SAA 946 

Tbe Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal. Svo. Sbangbae. 
Vol V -aAi Vol VI -fi-M- SJJ- 

Tbe Chinese Repository. 8vo. Canton. 

Vol TT 9<U- 962 9 63 965 966 968 97JL 971 AiS. Vol 
vol. AA.j -T-5~> 1 135 tlT5 ¥175 ^175 T2T> T?45 44 65 44 7* * <J1' 

m9 71 9 7 8 979 980 982 9 83 984 98 6 987 V^sl JV 
•5 "^T 5 -T¥"5 ^-^-5 Tiro 5 F^T5 TBT' 4T9 5 ITf 5 fit- V Ol. ± V ., 

M4 Vol V -S-S-i Vol VI J:M^ i=AA*- Vol VIT ^ » A T 

1008 1009 Vol TX 1 0^2 1 01 3 J_0J.4 UlU. lOJLe 1 01,7 
3T4^5 3^8 • ' "^' -"-^^M 66 5 67 5 6 7 5 9 8 5 TT4 5 116 5 

10 1 8 -1 02-i J022 102 S 1027 JJ>2 9 Yol X -l-»3.0 iO^L 

116 5 12 8 5 ^0T^5 386 5 T^UO T^3¥^* * "^' "^'5 10 5 17 5 

10 3 2 1033 103 5 j_0 3?. Vol XT JL-QJJ- Vol XTT 1042 



1_0 4 3 10 4 4 

■TTT'5 ~6-o"8"- 



718 APPENDIX. 

Storia Antica del Messico. Opera dell' Abate D. Francisco Saverio Clavi- 
gero. 4 vols., quarto. Oesena, 1780. 

Vol T XSJ-± J-5-5.1 1J>3A 10 5A lOA^ 1066 1 057 1060 
vol. X., ■'^ J ^1 > 29 > 38 5 4 8 > T6 > 18 > "TJT~J 

J_0 6JL Vol TT 1 64 1 065 J 066 X0 6JI 1JL6^ 1069 1070 

10_1± .1 Oil. 1_0_TL3 JJLtA 1(LL5. 1_0_3L6_ JJ) 7_T 10 1J. 1-0X9- -lA^J. 

TOO? l¥0 } 121 J ISOJTTrJ 138 J 138 > 178 > 1 65 J TT2^> 

1 8 1 i 083 1083 1 08.4 

19 5 5 2^0 8 > 20 8 > ^51* 

Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russian and Siberian Tartary. 
By Captain John Dundas Cochrane, E. N. 2 vols., 8vo. Second 
edition. London, 1824. 

Vol T 1 8_6 1 sj. 

V Ul. J.., -32o"> "J32 • 

Cohneiro — Diccionario de los Diversos Nombres Vulgares de Muchas 
Plantas Usuales 6 Notabiles del Antiguo y Nuevo Mundo. 
Reference No. 1089. 

Congr^s International des Am6ricanistes. Oompte-Eendu de la Premiere 
Session. 2 vols., 8vo. Nancy, 1875. 

See Lucien Adam, Leon de Rosny, and M. Godron. 

Congres International des Am^ricanistes. Compte-Rendu de la Seconde 
Session. 2 vols., 8vo. Luxembourg, 1877. 

Vol. I., J^9f , JgOgS^. See also Francis A. Allen and V. A. 
Malte-Brun. 

The Despatches of Hernando Cortes. Translated by George Folsora. 
Svo. New York, 1843. 

iO 9 5. 109 7 ^ 098 10 91. 1100 1102 IJLO 3 1 1_0JL 110 5 1 UL?. 
36' 61J 63> 68 5 7 6 5 110 5 11T^5"T2 4 5 1 2T 5 37 9' 

The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the Northmen. By B. F. 
de Costa. Svo. Albany, 1868. 

Reference No. 1110, p. vii. -Ht"^- 

The Northmen in Maine. By the Rev. B. F. de Costa. 8vo. Albany, 
1870. 

JJJUL 

1 3ir' 
Account of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America. By Will- 
iam Coxe, A. M., F. R. S. 8vo. Third edition. London, 1787. 

J.U-5- 1 117 1118 111 9 1120 j 121 1 122 112 3 11 24 UL2^ 
4T 5 30^5 615 625 685 765 865 1245 17 9 5 2 18* 

History of the Indian Archipelago. By John Crawfurd, F. R. S. 3 vols., 
8vo. Edinburgh, 1820. 

Vol I JrM^ 1132 JL1_3_3 1134 1135 1136 Vol TT JJ-AS. 

Y ^i. J.., -j^^, 27 6 5 289 5 ^Do 5 3 6 5 4 4 7 ' » *J1' -'-'-3 80 5 

Jl 40- 1141 11JL2 114 3 1144 Vol TTT 1146 
^OT 5 2 7 ' 218 5 2 21 > 45 7 • ^ "^' -•^^1., j q f . 

Life among the Apaches. By John C. Creraony. 8vo. San Francisco, 
1868. 

114 8 
24 7 • 



APPENDIX. 719 

Annual Report of Brigadier-General George Crook, U. S. A., Command- 
ing Department of Arizona. 12mo. 1883. 

Alaska and its Eesources. By William H. Dall. 8vo. Boston, 1870. 

H-^-, Hih -W/, Vt¥> Hil, VsV-, ^W, ^W, 'h^^ -V.V-, 
WA VAS Vj¥, -WS W/. Hii"-' 

Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 318. 

On the Remains of Later Pre-Historic Man obtained from Caves in 
the Catherine Archipelago, Alaska Territory, and especially from the 
Caves of the Aleutian Islands. By W. H. Dall. Quarto. Washing- 
ton, 1878. 

iip.^ :u-i^, ii|A, :liia. 

Nouveau Voyage Autour du Monde. Par Guillaume Dampier. 5 vols., 
18mo. Rouen, 1715. 
Vol. III., -1^^. 
Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences. Vols. II. 
and III. 8vo. Davenport, Iowa, 1877-1880. 
Vol. II., ^«f , Hih Vol. III., \w. 
El Gringo ; or, New Mexico and her People. By W. W. H. Davis. 8vo. 

New York, 1857. 
■lis 1 

42 9 • 

~The Folk-Lore of China, and its Affinities with that of the Aryan and 
Semitic Races. By N. B. Dennyss, Ph. D. 8vo. Hong-Kong, 1876. 

II fL2. 1190 
8^ ' 13 9* 

Le Bouddhisme et I'Apologetique Chretienne. Par l'Abb6 A. Deschamps. 
8vo. Paris, 1860. 

De la Discipline Bouddhique. Par I'Abb^ A. Deschamps. 8vo. Paris, 



1862. 

J-3 



cX>-^^ 



\-S\£i v->U^, 



ou Livre des 



Merveilles de I'lnde. Traduction Frangaise, par L. Marcel Devic. 
Quarto. Leide, 1883. 

Die Entdeckung und Eroberung von Mexico, nach des Bernal Diaz del 
Castillo gleichzeitiger Erziihlung; bearbeitet von der Uebersetzerin 
des Vasari. 12rao. Hamburg, 1848. 

x^«A, 1^, 1^1.^9^, 1^, Vo\S ¥iV-, -VAS ¥1"/, W/, W^ 



720 APPENDIX. 

An Account of the Abipones, an Equestrian People of Paraguay, From 
the Latin of Martin Dobrizhoffer. 3 vols., 8vo. London, 1822. 
Vol. L, m^, -^,W- Vol. II., ^Y, W/- 

Vocabulary and Hand-Book of the Chinese Language. By Eev. Justus 
Doolittle. 2 vols., small quarto. Foochow, 1872. 

Vol. I., mK 

Cit6s et Euines Americaines. Photographi^es par D6sir6 Charnay, avec 
un Texte par M. Viollet-le-Duc. 8vo. Paris, 1863. 

1211 ±215. 
TT > ST • 

Antiquites Mexicaines. Eelation des Trois Expeditions du Oapitaine 
Dupaix. Folio. Paris, 1834. 

First Expedition, i^, H", HV', H!^ -ff^- Third Expe- 

(lUinn 12-3_2. 18 33 XS.3.± ±£3.5. 1236 

anion, -^g , ij , — n 5 is , "^30 • 
Chinese Buddhism. By Eev. Joseph Edkins, D. D. 8vo. Boston, 1880. 
Eeference No. 1241, p. viii. m^, ^^, m^, ^^, ^^, 

±2 5iL ±2.5.1 1252 ±2 53 1254 ±g.U. 1256 ±2_5_1 1258 1259 

48 > tl ) 63 ; 8¥^? ST^J 94 > 98 > 1005 1065 1105 

±2 6 1_2_6± _1_2 62 12 6_3. 1 2_6_A ±2_6_5 1266 ±_2 6_1 ±2 6 8 12 6 9 

1^1 4"5 153 5 Iiri5^l3 5 54 3 5 3 92 5^T4 5 3^7 5 3 8'r5 "3T8^"5 

1 2J_0. 1_2_7 J 1 2_12. ±2 13. 1 2T4 
"102 5 40 9 5 "Tl 3 5 ■Tl4 5 4n* 

Etude sur les Origines Buddhiques de la Civilisation Am^ricaine. Par M. 
Gustave d'Eichthal. Premiere Partie. 8vo. Paris, 1865. 
Eeference No. 1277. 

A Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect. By Ernest John Eitel. 
8vo. Hong-Kong, 1877. 
Part L, -VtV-. 
Thirtieth Congress, First Session. Ex. Doc. No. 41. 

Notes of a Military Eeconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Mis- 
souri, to San Diego, in California. By Lieutenant- Colonel W. H. 
Emory. 8vo. "Washington, 1848. 

1281 128 2. 1383 1285 18 8 1 12 88 
4 9 5 ~~SS 5 10 5 99 5~4 8!r5 4¥2' 

The Encyclopsedia Britannica. Ninth edition (American reprint). 

Vol I JL29 2- Vol II i29A ±2J_5 ±2 9 6 ±291 12 9_8. TTol 

TV J-SJU. 1302 1303 Vnl V 1305 1306 Vnl VT 

1308 Yol XII -lAJJ- Vol XTTI 13 13 1314 Vol 
XIV J 31-6 Vol XVI ^3J8 ±31_a. ±32_0 

The Kansas City Eeview of Science and Industry. Vol. V., No. 11. 
March, 1882. 

Article entitled " The Mound-Builders and the Aztecs," by Mr. S. B. 
Evans. 

Eeference No. 1323. 



APPENDIX. >J^21 

The Pilgrimage of Fa Eian. From the French edition of the Foe Koue 
Ki of MM. Eemusat, Klaproth, and Landresse, with Additional Notes 
and Illustrations. 8vo. Calcutta, 1848. 

.133 6 1 32 7 1,3 2 8 1 32 9 J_3 3 1 13 3 2. 1333 1334 1336 1337 

1 » 1 5 a > 5 J ff > 3 J 23 > 24 J ~T^ 1 5 4 5 > 

J3i8 13 3 9. 1340. 13 41 13A3. J34_3 13_4_4 i3_4 7 13^8 134 9 

5T^J 9 3 » 10^ > TO 3 J 1 04 > TTo 6 5 TTl 3 5 14"J'J T7F"> 'TTS'} 

J 3 5J. l_3-5_2. 136 3 1 3JL4 1 3 S.6 1 3 5 7 136 8 1 3_6 J 3 6 1 1 368 

T96 5 "207 > ~2T? > "¥6 l"' "TliTJ 312 > 3 1 6 ) ~S i'S > T3S'}~S^1~) 

13_6_3 JL3_64. 13 6_8 

34 3 > 34 7 > ^Ji ' 

Lettres . . . sur I'Archipel Japonais, et la Tartarie Orientale. Par le P. 
Furet. 18mo. Paris, 1860. 

1371 i3JL2 

32 > 9S • 

A New Survey of the "West Indies. By Thomas Gage. Quarto. Lon- 
don, 1655. 

1373 1374 137S lAT &. 1377 137J. 1379 1380 J_3 8 1 1382 

2 S^i 36 > 4 6 > 4 6 > ^WO ' ^WZ > 6 15 7 2 J 9T~J "TTJ'J 

138 3 1384 1386 1387 

T4 S > 14 7 > 6 5 6 8* 

On the Indian Tribes and Languages of Costa Eica. By WiUiam M. Gabb. 
(Eead before the American Philosophical Society, Aug. 20, 1875.) 
8vo. Philadelphia, 1875. 

Silabario de Idioma Mexicano. Por el Lie. D. Faustino Chimalpopocatl 
Galicia. 16mo. Mexico, 1849. 



Transactions of the Amejican Ethnological Society. Vol. I. 8vo. New 
York, 1845. 

Article entitled "Notes on the Semi-civilized Nations of Mexico, 
Yucatan, and Central America," by Albert Gallatin. 

1401 1402 1 4JL3 1 4 0_5 1 40 6 ULO 7 
6 8 } TT4 J 516 5 ~SY4: ) 'Tit 5 6 8 5* 

Nouvelle Journal Asiatique. Paris, 1832. 
Letter from P^re Gaubil. 

Annales des Voyages de la G6ographie, de FHistoire, et de I'Archeologie. 
Tome 4. 8vo. Paris, 1868. 

Article entitled " Une Mission Buddhiste en Am6rique au V Siecle 
de I'Ere Chr^tienne," par Dr. A. Godron. 
li^tl. 

Congres International des Am6ricanistes. Compte-Eendu de la Premiere 
Session. Nancy, 1875. Vol. I. 8vo. Nancy, 1875. 
Article on the Maguey (Agave Americana), by Dr. A. Godron. 

1 4 13 
4 6 3' , „ 
46 



Y22 APPENDIX. 

Memolrea de Litt(§rature, tires des Registres de I'Acad^mie Royale des 
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Tome XXVIII. Paris, 1761. 

Article entitled "Recherches sur lea Navigations des Chinois du 
Cote de I'Am^rique, et sur quelques Peuples situes a l'Extr6mit6 
Orientale de I'Asie," par M. de Guignes. 
So 3 • 

On the Present State of Buddhism in China. By the Rev. Dr. C. Gutz- 
laff. 8vo. London [no date]. 

Lil± UL20 1421 
14 > Ig^J 16 • 

CoUeccion de Documentos para la Ilistoria de Mexico. Publicada por 
Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta. 2 vols., 8vo. Vol. II. Mexico, 1866. 

Primera Relacion Andnima de la Jornada que hizo Nuno de Guz- 
man a la Nueva Galicia. 
Reference No. 1422. 

Stranger than Fiction. By the Rev. J. J. Halcombe, M. A. 12mo. 
London, 1882. 

1 4 2_a. 14 2 4 

Les Tolt^ques. Par M. E.-T. Haray. 

Extrait du Bulletin hebdomadaire No. 118 de I'Association Scienti- 
fique de France. Conference du 25 Mars, 1882. 

J-4 2^ 1_4 2JL 
12 ' 18 • 

Eastern Monachism. By R. Spence Hardy. 8vo. London, 1860. 

1431 1.4 32. 143 3 1_4_3_4 1_4_3_5 i4„3 6 14 3 1 t4 3_8 1 439 1 4_4 
10 J 72 > 112»~116' 121> 1 4~5 i "^rTS i ~ IJ 9') 166'~?01> 

1441 1442 1443 l^iiA. lAAA 1 4Jt 6 i_4 4J. 
2 11 } 2205 2215 2225 2275 24 O 3 TT' 

A Manual of Buddhism, in its Modern Development. By R. Spence 
Hardy. Second edition. 8vo. London, 1880. 

145 1 1.4 5.3. 14:54. 1.4 5_S. 1 4_5 T 1 4 5_8. 1 4_6 1 4_61. 
2T 5 30 5 80 5 2365~F3¥5 3715 4875 491* 

Contributions to the Ethnography and Philology of the Indian Tribes of the 
Missouri Valley. By F. V. Hayden, M. D. Quarto. No place or date. 

1463 
~37^"- 

Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Wyoming. 
By F. V. Hayden, M. D. 8vo. Washington, 1871. 

Hi^y h%^- See also J. S. Newberry, Thomas C. Porter, and 
Dr. 0. 0. Parry. 

Nouvelle Decouverte d'un Tres Grand Pays. Par le R. P. Louis Henne- 
pin. 16mo. Utrecht, 1697. 

A Japanese and English Dictionary. By J. C. Hepburn. 8vo. London, 
1867. 

XAll. lAlZ. 1473 14 71 14 75. 147 6. 14 77 1478 14 7 9_ 118 
3T^5 33 5 6 1 5 ^t > 8 4^5 TYo 5 T:1T^5 12 7 5 l^t 5 T6r5 



APPENDIX. Y23 

1A9± JJL83. 14_8A 14 8J. 148_6_ 14 8 7 1488 14 8 9 1JL9_0 1491 
1C1> 18rJ ?18 > ^B3 5 ^16 » ^19 > 36 3 > ^T8 >^ll">"5Fr> 
1J_9„8. 149 3 
5 1 9 J T^4 1 • 

Rerum Medlcarum Novee HispanisG Thesaurus ... ex Francisci Her- 
nandez. Small folio, Eome, 1651. 

1A±S lAAl 1499 liOO 15 1 15 02 1503. 1_5J) 6 1601 1508 

3 1 > 5T^J 6 1 ' Tff^J 7 8 J 10 1JT:i"3^> 2 8"> "50 9 5 TTtTj 
U 02. i_5jL2 15 1_3. 15J 4 JJJLA 1516. 1,5 1_1 1620 15 2_J 1 623 

3 05^) 3185 324> 3 27 5 S 3 6 y ~S^'S ) ^ i J ~Ij3'} T8 TJ ^TT) 

lj\2^. Supplement, i^^. 

Exploration of the Valley of the Amazon. By Lieutenant William Lewis 
Herndon. 8vo. Washington, 1854. 

U-iS. .li_3 3 153 4 

15^5 llT^J TTr- 

HpoSoTov Tov 'A\iKapvy]S€os 'IsTopirj, 'fj 'isTopiiov Bt'/SXoi 0, ''Emypa(f)6n€vai 
Movsai. 

References Nos. 1535, 1536, 1537, 1538, and 1540. Bk. IIL, eh. 
102 ; Bk. IIL, ch. 107; Bk. IV., ch. 25 ; Bk. IV., ch. 31 ; Bk. 
IV., ch. 191, 

Catalogo de las Lenguas de las Naciones Conocidas. Su Autor el Abate 
Don Lorenzo Hervas. 6 vols., 8vo. Madrid, 1800. 
Vol I lAM J-S^A^ LM-^ 

» y/i. J.., -g-jjo 5 30 1 > 3l6 * 

M^moire sur le Pays connu des Anciens Chinois sous le Nom de Fou-sang. 
Par M. le Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys. Extrait des Comptes- 
Rendus des Stances de I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. 
8vo. Paris, 1876. 

Reference No. 1544. 

Ethnographie des Peuples Strangers a la Chine. Ouvrage compose au 
XIIP Siecle de noire £re, par Ma-Touan-lin. Traduit pour la pre- 
miere fois du Chinois, avec un Commentaire Perpetuel. Orientaux. Par 
le Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys. Small quarto. Geneva, 1876. 

l-lfl 15 46. .154 7 164 8. li_49 1_5J d 1551 1558 15 63 

4 9 J T:T7 5 ^TT 5 38 8 5 4 0^^5 4 55 4 0T"> 60 5 "TTO • 

A Japanese Grammar. By J. J. Hoffmann. 8vo. Leyden, 1868. 

15 54 
3 • 

Traces de Buddhisme en Norv^ge. Par M. C. A. Holraboe. 8vo. Paris, 
1857. 

The Six Scripts. A translation by L. 0. Hopkins. 8vo. Amoy, 1881. 
Reference No. 1558, p. xxi. 

Georgi Horni. De Originibus Americanis. 16mo. Lugduni Batavorum, 
1652. 

3§ • 



Y24 



APPENDIX. 



A Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China. By M. Hue. Translated from the 
French by W. Hazlitt. 2 vols., 8vo. London, 1851-'52. 

Vol T 1564 t.5_6£ JL5_6-fi. J-SejL 166J- 1X6 9 J 5 7 Yq] TJ 

3578 1573 1575 J_5_7JL 
^3~J 44 5 76 J 2 12- 

Vues des Cordilleres et Monumens des Peuples indigenes de I'Am^rique. 
Par Al. de Humboldt. Large folio. Paris, 1810. 

References Nos. 1579 to 1584, inclusive, pp. i., si., xiii., xx., xxx., 
andxxxi. i|r,^H^,Mf^,HI^5HF.¥^. ¥^. -¥^» 

Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain. By Alexander de Hum- 
boldt. Translated from the original French by John Black. 4 vols., 
8vo. London, 1811. 

Vol. II., m^ i^»xs jfVf . 

Ueber die Kawi-Sprache auf der Insel Java. Von Wilhelm von Hum- 
boldt. 3 vols., quarto. Berlin, 1836. 

1 6J) 8 1_6_0 9 1 6JL0 
"J80> 28T"}~?83* 

Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta. See de Guzman. 

Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names. By Thomas Inman, M. D. 
Second edition. 2 vols., 8vo. London, 1872. 

Vol. I., \vf . 

Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, under 
the Command of Major Stephen H. Long. Compiled by Edwin James. 
2 vols., 8vo. Philadelphia, 1823. 

Vol T 16 1_2 1613 

V oi. 1., -J 19", -trj^- 
Thirtieth Congress. First Session. Ex. Doc. No. 41. 

Notes of a Military Reconnoissance from Fort Leavenworth, in Mis- 
souri, to San Diego, in California. Journal of Captain A. R. Johnston. 

1 6_1_6. 
599 • 

M6moires sur les Contr^es Occidentales. Traduit du Sanscrit en Chinois 
en I'An 648 par Hiouen-Thsang, et du Chinois en Fran^ais par M. 
Stanislas Julien. 2 vols, large 8vo. Paris, 1858. 

J_6 1 6 1 617 

M6thode pour D6chiflfrer et Transcrireles Noms Sanscrit que se Rencontient 
dans les Livres Chinois. Par M. Stanislas Julien. 8vo. Paris, 1861. 

H{^, HF, ^fF, ^fF, Hi^ m^, ^W, ¥^. \W, -V¥^' 

Syntaxe Nouvelle de la Langue Chinoise. Par M. Stanislas Julien. 2 
vols., 8vo. Paris, 1869. 
Vol. I., J-6jaJ.. 



APPENDIX. Y25 

Histoire de Kamtschatka, des Isles Kurilski, et des Gentries Voisines. 
Traduite par M. E. 2 vols., 18mo. Lyons, 1767. 

Vol. I., HF, -hW' ^oi. II., m^, w^, w?^-. 

Essays : Ethnological and Linguistic. By the late James Kennedy. 8vo. 
London, 1881. 

Essay on the Probahle Origin of the American Indians. 
,/^-~,- 13AJ- 

/ lotr • 

/Antiquities of Mexico. By Lord Kingsborough. 9 vols., imp. folio. 
1830-'48. 

Vol. VI., m^. 

Nouvelles Annales des Voyages. Tome LI. Paris, 1831. 

Article entitled " Kecherches sur le Pays de Fou Sang, mentionne 
dans les Livres Chinois, et pris, mal a-propos, pour une Partie de l'Am6- 
rique," par M. J. Klaprolh. 

Hi"-' 

Fragmens Bouddhiques. Par M. J. Klaproth. 8vo. 

Extrait du Nouveau Journal Asiatique, Mars, 1831. 

San Kokf Tsou Pan To Sets, on Aper^u G6n6ral des Trois Royaumes. 
Traduit de I'original Japonais-Ohinois, par M. J. Klaproth. 8vo. 
Paris, 1832. 

MAX, ±v^, m-s ^^, ^^, hv, -wf , ^w> ^s'-^ Wi^* 

16 6 1 1 668 

-Toi > "Zoa • 
Nipon O Dai Itsi Ran, ou Annales des Empereurs du Japon. Accom- 
pagn6 de Notes, et pr6c6de d'un Apergu de I'Histoire Mythologique du 
Japon. Par M. J. Klaproth. Quarto. Paris, 1834. 

References Nos. 1665 to 1670, inclusive, pp. ii., iv., vi., xi., xix., 

and xxviii. 1^11., xy-^, ^^, m^ ms ^i^ m^ m^, 

H^. HB H^' HF, H^> h'H- 

Die Beiden Aeltesten General-Karten von Amerika. Ansgeftihrt in den 

Jahren 1527 und 1529. Auf Befehl Kaiser Karl's V. Erlautert von 

J. G. Kohl. Atlas folio. Weimar, 1800. 

1A3A 1J-8J. 
T^05^> TO 8 • 

Johannes de Laet. Notis ad Dissertationem Hugonis Grotii De Origine 

Gentium Americanarum. 18mo. Amstelodami, 1643. 

Relation des Choses de Yucatan, de Diego de Landa. Traduction Fran- 
§aise par rAbb6 Brasseur de Bourbourg. Svo. Paris, 1864. 

H^, ¥^, ^m, W^- 



726 APPENDIX. 

Bemerkung auf einer Eeise um die "Welt. Von G. H. von LangsdorS. 2 
vols., quarto. Frankfurt am Mayn, 1812. 

Vnl TT J-69J. 1_6_9l6 1697 JJI9J. 1.6JL9 J.'?_0_a lASLL 17 02 
^1 > 114- 

The Natural History of the Varieties of Man. By Kobert Gordon Latham. 
8vo. London, 1850. 

JJLOJ. 

2 92 • 

The Sacred Books of China. The Texts of Confucianism. Translated by 
James Legge. Part I. 8vo. Oxford, 1879. 

1 TOR 

Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Wyoming, 
etc. By F. V. Hayden. 8vo. Washington, 1871. 

Special Report by Joseph Leidy, LL. D., on the Vertebrate Fossils 
of the Tertiary Formations of the West. 

1 7.0 9 
589 • 

Who Discovered America? Evidence that the New World was know^n to 
the Chinese Fourteen Hundred Years Ago. 

(From the " Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal " for May, 
1870, Vol. II., p. 344. Copied from the "Gentleman's Magazine." 
Probably by Charles G. Leland.) 
Reference No. 1711. 

Fusang, or the Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the 
Fifth Century. By Charles G. Leland. 12mo. London, 1875, 

.1 7 13 .1714 JJLJLS JTll JJUJ- ^''20 1_7_2_1. 
8 6 J 8 § > 6 3 > 180 J T^eV? 163 ' 185" 

Parallele des Anciens Monuments Mexicains avec ceux de Pfigypte, de 
rinde, etc. Par M. Alexandre Lenoir. FoHo. Paris, 1834. 
References Nos. 1726, 1727, 1728, 1729, 1730, and 1731. 

The Hill Tracts of Chittagong. By Captain T. H. Lewin. 8vo. Cal- 
cutta, 1869. 

51 • 

Buddha and Early Buddhism. By Arthur Lilhe. 8vo. London, 1881. 

JJl 3i JJL 38 iJX9 1 740 1AA2 1JL4 3 1744 1 74 5 
1T^> 33^> 28 > 30 5 1 1 6^J ^4 > "14V> J57 • 

Zacharise Lilii — Orbis Breviarum. Small quarto. Florence, 1493. 

References Nos. 1751 to 1757 inclusive, pp. b. ii., c. viii., f. iii., g. 
iv., 1. ii., m. i., and m. viii. 

Grammar of the Chinese Language. By the Rev. W. Lobscheid. In two 
parts. 8vo. Hong-Kong, 1864. 
Part I., ^4P-. 



APPENDIX. Y27 

Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader. By J. Long. 
Quarto. London, 1791. 

1161 1768 
"^¥l"J 2 3 9' 

"^ Wi'Mr ^1 Wan-hien T'xjxg-k'au, or "A Thorougli Examination into 
Antiquity," by ,|| ^^ f^, Ma Twan-lin. 

Keferences Nos. 1764, 1765, 1766, and 1767. 

Voyages from Montreal . . . through the Continent of North America. 
By Sir Alexander Mackenzie. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1802. 

Keferences Nos. 1771, 1772, 1773, and 1774, pp. xci., xci., cxii., 
and cxiv. l^, l|is.. 

The Voyages of the Venetian Brothers Nicol6 & Antonio Zeno. By 
Kichard Henry Major, F. S. A. 8vo. London, 1873. 
Eeference No. 1778, p. xxxiv. 

Congres International des Am^ricanistes. Compte-Rendu de la Seconde 
Session, Luxembourg, 1877. 2 vols., 8vo. Luxembourg, 1877. 

Article entitled "Tableau de la Distribution Ethnographique des 
Nations et des Langues au Mexique," par M. V. A. Malte-Brun. 

Vol. II., Hl^. 

Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., for 1878. 8vo. Wash- 
ington, 1878. 

Appendix NN. Article entitled " Notes upon the First Discoveries 
of California, and the Origin of its Name," by Professor Jules Marcou. 

Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border. By Bvt. Brig.-Gen. R. B. 
Marcy, U. S. A. 8vo. New York, 1874. 
1A3A. J_ras. 

1 8 ) iTT' 
The Travels of Mai'co Polo. Translated from the Italian, with Notes, by 
William Marsden, F. R. S., etc. Quarto. London, 1818. 

References Nos. 1788 and 1789, pp. xxiv. and xxxix. ^ \\^ , 

1191 1 7,9 g JLTJML iJJiJ. 1796 17 9 7 1 7_9 8 18 1801 18 2 
107 > ttTy 17 6 5 23T^> ^3V> ^4 J ^TS 5 ^7 > "3 3 "> ^ST"* 
18 05 1 8 0_6. JL8 1 18 11 1 8_0. JXli 1817 18 18 18 19 

The History of Sumatra. By William Marsden, F. R. S. Third edition. 
Quarto. London, 1811. 

1820 t 821 1822 18 2 3 

53 J 10 > TTrr"} "30 2 • 
The Chinese : their Education, Philosophy, and Letters. By W. A. P. 
Martin, D. D., LL. D. 8vo. New York, 1881. 

The Voiage and Travaile of Sir John Maundevile, Kt. 8vo. London, 1866. 

1 8 2 7 18 28 1829 1830 18 3 1 1 S32 1833 18 3 4 18 35 18 3 6 
~Ttti "T^T"' 'TiTi "^O^'J 206 5 "Zrrs -5T3'5 '^-^T^ ■%1T"5 -ttr- 



728 APPENDIX. 

> Researches, Philosophical and Antiquarian, Concerning the Aboriginal 
History of America. By J. H. McCuUoh, Jr., M. D. 8vo. Balti- 
more, 1829. 

1_840 1842 U 4 3. HAS. JL846 il.4 8 IMS 18 5 185.1 1862 

1854 1 856 185 8 1 8 5_9 lAASi. 
2 3 3 > ~2^4T"> 3 6 1 J 26 8 J 4 T • 

A Dictionary of the Hok-keen Dialect of the Chinese Language. By W. 
n. Medhurst. Quarto. Macao, China, 1832. 

1864. J8 6 5 18 6 6 186 1 ±83A 13JJ. 13JJL UXt 18T2 18 7 3 

^TT^J T^^5 ^^T > ^3^9 > 29 1 5 ^^^> 318 5 3 28) 4 17) 4 3 7 > 

18 74 1 8,7 5 1_8_16. 

T^36 ) ^TS ) 639 • 

Second Eecueil de Pieces sur le Mexique. Published by M. Ternaux- 
Compans. 8vo. Paris, 1840. 

Letter of Don Antonio de Mendoza, First Viceroy of Mexico, to the 
King of Spain. 

1 8 78 
2 6T~' 

Le Bouddhisme : son Histoire, ses Dogmes, son Extension, et son Influence. 
Par L. de MiIlou6. 8vo. Lyon, 1882. 

JJJLS. 1 88 1881 1882 1883 1884 . 18 8 5 1_8_8 6 
T^) g ) 13) 14) 16 ) 2 3 ) ^2^ ) 83' 

The Indian Saint ; or Buddha and Buddhism. By Charles D. B. Mills. 
8vo. Northampton, Mass., 1876. 

1888 1889. 1890 1 8 aj. t 892 1893 1894 1896 
11 ) ^2 ) 1 5 ) 3 9 ) 67) 65 ) 7 7 ) 87 ' 

Grammaire Palie. Par J. Miuayef. Traduite du Russe par M. Stanislas 
Guyard. 8vo, Paris, 1874, 

1 8 9_1 

Vocabulario de la Lengua Mexicana. Compuesto por el P. Fr. Alonso de 
Molina. Publicado de Nuevo por Julio Platzmann. Quarto. Leip- 
zig, 1880. 

1898 1899 19 0,0 19 01 1902 19 03 1904 J.9 06 1906 1907 

18) 19)^J3)~T3) 26 ) 44 ) ~~I'9~) SlT'f 5 "2~) 5 2 ) 

1908. 1909 1 9 10 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 191 6 1917 

5^3 ) 56 ) gX^) 56 ) 56 ) 56 ) "56^) 76 ) 7 6~) 7 9) 

1918 19 lA 1 920 1 9 8 1 19 22 19 2 3 19 2 4 1 9 2 6 192 7 1928 

8 7 ) ~9 4 ) 10^) 14 1") T^4T") 142') "TIT"; iTT") ]mr)-TFff") 

1 929 1 9 3 

1"ST~) 157 • 

Travels in Central America. . . . From the French of the Chevalier 
Arthur Morelet, by Mrs. M. F. Squier. 8vo. New York, 1871. 

15_32 1_9 3_3 
9^^) 1^7 • 

League t)f the Hodenosaunee, or Iroquois. By Lewis 11. Morgan. 8vo. 
Rochester, 1851. 

1935 1936 1937 1 938 
1 U 7 ) T^n^) ^T¥ ) 3 3T^* 

Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity of the Human Family. By Lewis 
H. Morgan. Quarto. "Washington, 1871. 

¥r¥) V^V') ¥#-. 



APPENDIX. Y29 

The Indian Miscellany. Edited by W. W. Beach. 8vo. Albany, 1877. 
Article entitled " Indian Migrations." By Lewis H. Morgan, 

1 9 44 

158 • 
Keports of the Peabody Museum. Vol. 11. Svo. Cambridge, 1880. 

Article entitled " On the Euins of a Stone Pueblo on the Animas, 
in New Mexico ; with a Ground Plan." By Hon. Lewis H. Morgan. 

1 94 5 19 4 6 

5 4 1 } ITT • 

Contributions to North American Ethnology. Vol. IV. Quarto. "Wash- 
ington, 1881. • 

Houses and House Life of the American Aborigines, by Lewis H. 
Morgan. 

12.4 8 19 4 9 1 95 19 5^ i9 6_3 1954 i_9_55 1 957 
-- "itg"} ~4'S~> "T0 6 ' "T2T J 13T J 166' nT"> ?11* 

Buddhism and Buddhist Pilgrims. By Max Mullei-, M. A. 8vo. London, 
1857. 

i } ^2 J 81 > 3 • 

Der Mexikanische Nationalgott Huitzilopochtli. Von Professor Dr. J. G. 
Milller. Small quarto. Basel, 1847. 

1963 19 64 1965 
"15? 16 J 35 • 

Zeitschrift fur Allgemeine Erdkunde. New Series, Vol, XVI. 

Article entitled " Ost-Asien und West-Amerika nach Chinesischen 
Quellen aus dem Ftinften, Sechsten, und Siebenten Jahrhundert." Von 
Karl Friedrich Neumann, 

Reference No. 1966, p. 305. 

Prehistoric America. By the Marquis de Nadaillac. Translated by N. 
D'Anvers. Edited by W. H. Dall, Svo. Published by G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, New York and London, 1884. 
Reference No. 1967, pp. 125 and 273. 

Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of "Wyoming. 
By F. V. Hayden, 8vo, "Washington, 1871, 

Article entitled " The Ancient Lakes of "Western America." By J, S. 
Newberry, LL. D. 

i_9_6_8 
338 • 

History of South America and Mexico. By Hon. John M, Niles. 2 vols,, 
Svo, Hartford, 1844. 
Vol T is^Q 

Rambles in Yucatan. By B. M, Norman, Svo. New York, 1843. 

1 9 7 2 1 9 73 
"Tlg-J 1 8 3 • 

Indigenous Races of the Earth. By J, 0. Nott, M. D,, and George R. 
Glidden, Svo. Pliiladelphia, 1857. 

Reference No. 1975, p. xxiii. i^r^, i^^£^i, J^^^, -^^7^. 



730 APPENDIX. 

Grammaire de la Langue Nahuatl ou Mexicaine. Composee en 1547 par 
le Franciscain Andr6 de Olmos, et Publiee avec Notes, Eclaircissements, 
etc., par E6mi Simeon. 8vo. Paris, 1875. 

1 9 8JL X9 8^ 19 8 4. 1985 XiM. 19_a_Q. J»9-lt 19 9 2 
"3^9 > 3 8 }^'J > 60 > 6 4 > T^9 8 5 2 0T' 218* 

A Forbidden Land : Voyages to the Corea. By Ernest Oppert. 8vo. 
New York, 1880. 

1994 199 6 1 9J) 7 1 998 1 99 9 
60 > 18 > 1 1T"J 184 > 1ST"' 

L'FIomme Americain. Par Alcide d'Orbigny. 2 vols., Svo. Paris, 1839. 

Vnl T 2000 2001 20 0_^2 2003 Vnl TT 8Q04 

V 01. 1., -jyj-, -o vr> "3T9 J "3 2 9"- * ^^- ^^'i ^1 • 

Geografia de las Lenguas, y Carta Etnografica de Mexico. Por el Lie. 
Manuel Orozco y Berra. Quarto. Mexico, 1864. 
^^K Reference No. 2007, map. 

On the Anatomy of Vertebrates. By Richard Owen, F. R. S. 3 vols., 
8vo. London, 1868. 
Vol III SJioA. 

Voyages de M. P. S. Pallas, en Differentes Provinces de I'Empire de Eus- 
sie, et dans FAsie Septentrionale. Traduits de I'AUemand, par M. Gau- 
thier de la Peyronie. 5 vols., quarto. Paris, 1788. 

Vol I 2-0-0-9 

V Ul. A., 599. 

Memoire sur I'Origine Japonaise, Arabe et Basque, de la Civilization des 
Peuples du Plateau de Bogota. Par M. de Paravey. 8vo. Paris, 1835. 

2011 
3 • 

Origine Asiatique d'un Peuple de I'Am^rique du Sud. Par M. de Para- 
vey. (Extract from No. 15, Vol. IIL, of the Annales de Philosophie 
Ohr6tienne.) 

1012 
2 • 

Dissertation sur les Amazones dont le Souvenir est Oonserv6 en Chine. 
Par M. le Cher de Paravey, 8vo. Paris, 1840. 

2J)1 3 

9 • 
L'Am^rique sous le Nom de Pays de Fou-sang. Par M. de Paravey. 8vo. 
Paris, 1844. 

Reference No. 2015. 

Nouvelles Preuves que le Pays du Fou-sang mentionn6 dans les Livres 
Chinois est l'Am6rique. Par M. de Paravey. Svo. No place or date. 
Reference No. 2017. 

Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Wyoming. 
By F. V. Hayden. 8vo. Washington, 1871. 

" A List of Plants collected by C. Thomas." By Dr. C. C. Parry. 

2,0 19 



APPENDIX. 



731 



Journal Asiatiqne. October and November, 1839. 

Article entitled "A Methodical Examination of Facts Concerning 
T'ien-chu, or India." Translated from the Chinese by M. Pauthier. 



2 031 2 033 
2 T 9 > 3 8 6 "• 

Catalogue des Livres Chinois, composant la Bibliotheque de feu M. G. 
Pauthier. 8vo. Paris, 1873. 

2034 
30 • 

Eevue Orientale et Am^ricaine. Vol. YIII. Paris, 1862. 

Article entitled " Memoire sur les Relations des Anciens Araericaines 
avec les Peuples de I'Europe, de I'Asie, et de I'Afrique." Par M. Jos6 
Perez, D. M. 

Reference No. 2026. 

Congres International des Am6ricanistes. Compte-Rendu de la Premiere 
Session, Nancy, 1875. 2 vols., 8vo. Nancy, 1875. 
Article entitled " The D6ne-Dindjies." By M. Petitot. Vol. II. 

2088 
-^ 2 1 • 

Transactions of the Anthropological Society of Washington. Vol. I. 8vo. 
Washington, 1882. 

Summary of a paper entitled " Amphibious Aborigines of Alaska." 
By Ivan Petroff. 

Premier Voyage autour du Monde. Par le CheV Pigafetta. 8vo. Paris. 
Year IX. 

go 33 
2 5* 

Cuadro Descriptivo y Comparativo de las Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico. 
Por D. Francisco Pimentel. 2 vols., 8vo. Mexico, 1862. 

Vnl T 2035 2036 

Memoires de la Soci6t6 d'Ethnographie. Session de 1872. No. 63. 
Tome XI. 
Article entitled " Les Almontes et leur Origine." Par Alphonse Pinart. 

2038 2030 
"TT9") TBT'* 

Esquimaux et Koloches: Idees Religieuses et Traditions des Kaniagmiou- 
tes. Par M. Alphonse Pinart. 

(Extract from La Revue d' Anthropologic, 4'* numero de 1873.) 

2 04 2 

4 • 
Notes sur les Koloches. Par M. Alph. Pinart. 8vo. Paris, 1873. 
Reference No. 2045. 

La Chasse aux Animaux Marins et les Pecheries chez les Indigenes de la 
Cote Nord-Ouest d'Amdrique. Par M. Alph. Pinart. 8vo. Bou- 
logne-sur-Mer, 1875. 

2047^ 



/ irga APPENDIX. 

V 

Vestiges of the Mayas. By Augustus Le Plongeon, M, D. 8vo. New- 
York, 1881. 



3 049 gOgO 2.0L6J. 2_0J 
2 J 'it^> 2 9 J 11 



Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Wyoming. 
By F. V. Hayden. 8vo. Washington, 1871. 
"A Catalogue of Plants." By Professor Thomas C. Porter. 



2054 

-J1T-- 



\ Contributions to North American Ethnology. Vol. III. Quarto. Wash- 
ington, 1877. 

"Tribes of Cahfornia." By Stephen Powers. 

2_0 O. g.OS 7 2 5 8 2 5 9 206 2 6 1 2 062 
2 > Tre > 2?¥^> "2 3 3"5 "FS^O "STT^J ■^IST"' 

\i History of the Conquest of Mexico. By William H. Prescott. 3 vols., 
8vo. Philadelphia, 1871. 

Vol T 2JL6_4 20E5. 2_0_6_6 2JL6_1 2 6 8 2069 2071 8 72 

V ui. J.., 4 3, g-^, 1 3 6 J 1 3 8 J "T¥0"> 14 3 > "268 » 'Y^d'i 

.8073 Yol IT 2J)J_1 _2J)JL6 _2_0 7 1 Vol TTT 2089 2081 
^TO • * '^^^ ^^'i 117 5 130 J 3F8 • V Ol. XIX., — 3^"^, 1 ^^ , 

2 82 2 83 2 8 4 2_P_8_5. 2 8 6 20 8 7 20 8 8 8, 089 8090 
^TTT) ^TS > 3 80 5 3 8 9 5 TTo^5 -gXO 415 5 'rfD 'ttW' 

Tibet, Tartary, and Mongolia. By Henry T. Prinsep, Esq. 8vo. Lon- 
don, 1852. 

2^9 2. 209 3 209 S 809 g 2 098 8099 8100 
1 2 5 5 5 5 13 3-5 1445 "T45'5 160 5 "i7l • 

Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. By James Cowles 
Pritchard, M. D. Fourth edition. 5 vols., 8vo. London, 1841. 
Vol. III., ^1^^. 

The Natural History of Man. By James Cowles Pritchard. Fourth edi- 
tion. 2 vols., Svo. London, 1855. 

Vol. I., ^v/-. 

Purchas : his Pilgrimage. In foure Partes. By Samuel Purchas. Small 
folio. London, 1613. 

Part I MAi^- 2J_08 2J_0 9 8111 8 11 2 2 113 2_11_A 2 11 6 
5J 1 9 2120 

Second Recueil de Pieces sur le Mexique. Published by M. Ternaux- 
Compans. 8vo. Paris, 1840. 
Letters of the Auditor Quiroga to the Empress of Spain. 
See " Salmeron," Reference No. 2222. 

The History of Java. By Thomas Stamford Raffles. 2 vols., quarto. 
London, 1817. 

Vol. I., ^^-. Vol. II., Reference No. 2125, frontispiece. 
References Nos. 2127, 2128, and 2129, pp. c, clxvii., and 
ccxxxix. 



APPENDIX. 733 

Antiquitates Americanas. Edidit Societas Kegia Aiitiqvariorum Septen- 
trionaliura. Studio et Opera Caroli Ohristiani Eafn. Quarto. Copen- 
hagen, 1845. 

Eeferences Nos. 2131 to 2137, inclusive, pp. xxx., xxxi., xxxii., 

xxxii., xxxii., xxxii., and xxxiii. 

Second Recueil de Pieces sur lo Mexique. Published by M. Ternaux- 
Compans. 8vo. Paris, 1840. 

Letter of Sebastian Ramerez de Fuenleal, Bishop of San Domingo, 
to the Empress of Spain. 

JJL3 8 

Historical Kesearches on the Conquest of Peru, Mexico, etc. By John 
Ranking. 8vo. London, 1827. 

"2 6 6^* 

Relation des Voyages fait par les Arabes et les Persons, dans I'Inde et a la 
Chine, dans le IX siecle de I'llre Chretienne. Publi6 avec des Correc- 
tions . . . et d'Eclaircissements, par M. Reinaud. 2 vols., 18mo. 
Paris, 1845. 

Vnl T 214 3 
vol. 1., -ii;j-. 

M S i^ ^, 'Rh-ta StJ-Tu. The 'Rn-YA (or "Ready Guide"), ar- 
ranged in Order, and Complete. 

References Nos. 2145, 2146, and 2147. 

Congr^s International des Am6ricanistes. Compte-Rendu de la Premiere 
Session, Nancy, 1875. 2 vols., 8vo. Nancy, 1875. 

Vol. I., p. 140, Extracts from the Remarks of M. L60II de Rosny 
on a Note of M. Foucaux, Regarding the Relations which the Bud- 
dhists of Asia and the Inhabitants of America may have had with each 
other at the Commencement of our Era. 
Reference No. 2151. 

Les Documents Ecrits de 1' Antiquity Am6ricaine. Par L6on de Rosny. 
Quarto. Paris, 1882. 

215_3_ 

La Civilisation Japonaise. Par L6on de Rosny. 18mo. Paris, 1883. 

2155 2J6fi. 215 7 21 S« 8 15 3 2t6 
3 i } 5T^> 69 » i 5 > 9 1 > 1 8'¥'' 

Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-TVest Passage. By 
Sir John Ross. Quarto. London, 1835. 

2162 216 3 2 1 6 4 5JL6 5 

Ueber den Doppelsinn des "Wortes Schamane, imd ueber den Tungusischen 
Schamanen-Cultus am Hofe der Mandju-Kaiser. Von TV. Schott. 
Small quarto. 1842. 



^^34 APPENDIX. 

Histoire G6n6rale des Choses de la Nouvelle-Espagne. Par le R. P. Fray 
Bernardino de Sabagun. Traduite et annot6e par D, Jourdanet et par 
Eemi Simeon. Quarto. Paris, 1880. 
Eeferences Nos. 2171 and 2172, p. Ivi. 

gns 2174 2J 75. 2J_16. 2177 21 7 ^ 2180 U 8_5 2 1 8_8. 2189 

1 > 1 3 > IT^J 1 6 > 1 6 > 63 » 64 5 1 1 6 > 2To J "2T9"> 

2 1 9J}. 2 1 9 3 2JJL5 2 19 6 2 1 9 7 2198 2 19 9 220 2 2 1 2 2 Q2 

^J 1 » ^2 O 2 3 3 > tTTf jn } 4 8 > "Tl^ T"' OT"> "Ts I~J "T87 > 

220 3 2 2 04 2_2_0 5. 2 2 6 2_2 0_7 2 2 8 22 9 2210 2 2_1 2 221 3 

4 9T~> Tirs J 6 2T J "6T7 J 6 JO > "BTrs J "6 7 3 J 6 7 4 ) "6 ST"? "XHITj 

2 2 15 2_2 1 6 2217 22 18 221 9 2 2 2 2221 

"T3T"> 7 6 6 5 7 74 J 7 TF"* TT'S"? "83 S~> 860 • 

Second Recueil de Pieces sur le Mexique. Published by M. Ternaux-Com- 
pans. 8vo. Paris, 1840. 

Letters of the Auditors Salmeron, Maldonado, Ceynos, and Quiroga, 
to the Empress of Spain. 

8 2_2 2 2223 
~T3 9^J 17^' 

Buddhism in Tibet. By Emil Schlagintweit, LL. D. Svo. Leipzig, 1863. 

2 2 2 5 2 2 23. 2 2 2 7 2 2 2 8 2 229 2230 2 2 3 1 2232 223 3 2 2 3 4 
"93 > 13^0 > "TT6 ' 16 3 J "T6 7 > 17 1 > 1 7l J 182 J 1 8 8~> "IT?"* 
82 35 S 2 36 
211 > ^T^ • 

Uranographie Chinoise. Par Gustave Schlegel. Quarto. Leyde, 1875. 
Part I., m^. 

History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United 
States. By Henry R. Schoolcraft. 6 vols., quarto. Philadelphia, 
1851-'57. 

Vol VI -^-S-SJ- 

V Ui. V J.., 64 3 . 

Oneota ; or. Characteristics of the Red Race of America. By Henry E. 
Schoolcraft. Svo. New York, 1845. 

8 2 40 
T3T • 

Die Volksnamen der Amerikanischen Pflanzen. Gesamraelt von Berthold 
Seeman. 8vo. Hanover, 1851. 

2241 8242 2243 
1 » 25 4 • 

ill f§ t^- The Shan Hai King, or " Classic of Mountains and Seas." 
References Nos. 2245 to 2248, inclusive : an extract from the 
Preface, and the Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Books in full. 

"Wa Nen Kei, sive Succincti Annales Japonici. Curante Ph. Fr. de Sie- 
bold. Quarto. Lugduni Batavorum, 1834. 

2851 2 8_5 2 2 2 5 3 2 254 2 2 5_i. 225 6 2 8 5 7 22 5 8 2860 8261 
4 5 "4 » 3 » 5^5 ? ' ^ 5 ""5 ' 6 5 7 5 7 5 

2 2J. 2. 22 6 3 2264 2265 2 2 6 6 2267 226 8 226 9 2270 2271 

8 5 8 5 8 5 8 5 S 5 8 5 8 5 8 5 8 5 8 5 

8872 2 8JL3 22 7 4 2275 3276 12 Xi 2278 2279 2280 2281 

9 5 9 5 T'O 5 10 5 11 5^:1 > 11 5 11 5 1 ?^5 1 2^5 

5J.8_2 2283 2284 2.215. 2J.8_6 2887 1^.8 8 ^23^ 2J.9 8X9 i 
'"" " ' " - - -^ -^ ) j5 J 



12 5 125 125 145 145 145 \~i ■) 145 1 3~5 

23 9 8 22 9 3 22 94 22 9 5 22 9 6 22 9 7 22 9 9 23 00 23 01 2303 

T5 5 1 T~5 16 5 16 5 ~ 1 6 5 16 5 16 5 16 5 16 5 16 5 

2303 2304 2 305 .g3 0,6 2307 2308 2309 231 2311 .?_3 12 

17 5 17 5 -2T~5 ^1^5 23 5 23^5 rf-5 ^"g-s i; 8 5 ZT^' 



APPENDIX. 735 

Lui Ho, sive Vocabularium Sinense in Koraianum Conversum. By Ph. 
Fr. de Siebold. Quarto. Lugduni Batavorum, 1838. 
Eeference No. 2314, character No. 1065. 

Fusang ; or, the Discovery of America by Chinese Buddhist Priests in the 
Fifth Century. 12mo. London, 1875. 
Letter of Theos. Simpson. 

23AA 
163 • 

A Vocabulary of Proper Names in Chinese and English. By F. Porter 
Smith. 8vo. Shanghai, 1870. 

2317 2318 2319 2320 2321 2323 232 4 2325 2326 2327 

6 > 6 5 6 > 7 J 8 5 S~) lt~) ~Tl~i ~^T~) ~3T~J 

2339 2330 2331 23 3 3 2334 233fi 
3 6 5 38 ' 4 3 5 "S 6 » ~5 J 53 ' 

Historia de la Conquista de Mexico. Par Don Antonio de Solis y Riva- 
deneyra. Small quarto. Madrid, 1790. 

2341 2342 2343 2 3 4 4 2_3_4 5_ 2_3jL6 2341 2348 2349 2351 

67 J 77 J 8T^> 165 5 17^5 1 8 4 5 "2 1 5 ~STT'5 "S 1 9"5 ~3 3T'5 

X ~ 2 3 5 2 2355 23 5 6 235 8 23 5 9 2 3 60 

/ )v ^F5^5 33 7 5 ^T3 5 3 83 5 3 83 5 ~5 9T"' 

, ,' Nicaragua : its People, Scenery, Monuments, etc. By E. G. Squier. 8vo. 
^ New York, 1860. 

2 3 6_2 2 3_6J. 2 3_6 4 2367 
"T9 4 5 29 15"T3T"5 64 7' 

Tropical Fibres: their Production and Economic Extraction, By E. G. 
Squier. 8vo. London, 1863. 

2369 2 370 2371 2372 13 7 3 
1^~5 36 5 33 5 34 5 3 5~' 

Chinese Repository, Vol. IL Quotation from Ta Tsing Leuh-le. Trans- 
lated from the Chinese by Sir George Thomas Staunton. London, 1810. 

[^ 1J.75. 

iN '^' 

\l Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. By John 
L. Stephens. 2 vols., 8vo. New York, 1843. 

Vnl TT 2379 2 3 80; 23 81 ,2 3 8 2 
y ui. i.x., 3 1 -J, 3lT"5 4 3 9^5 '4 44 • 

Summer Saunterings over the Lines of the Oregon Railway and Naviga- 
tion Co. 8vo. Portland, Oregon, 1882. 

2385^ 

Les Religieuses Bouddhistes. Par Mme. Mary Summer. 18mo. Paris, 
1873. 

2 3 87 
64 • 

A Handbook of the Chinese Language. Parts I. and H. By James Sum- 
mers. 8vo. Oxford, 1863. 
Reference No. 2390, p. xx. 

Part T 2392 2393 2 3 94 2396 239 7 2.3 9 9 lACLO 2402 

JTdlb J.., ig , 1^ 5 43 5 JY^i 5ii WT'l 6 4 ~5 7 7 5 

1J,04 2406 24 0_7 2j408 2_4 10 2411 241 2 24 14 2 4 15 Parf 

.1 7 2411 
.3 5 ^TT 



II. 2417 . 24 18. 



736 APPENDIX. 

The Rudiments of the Chinese Language. By the Rev. James Summers. 
16mo. London, 1864. 

Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 267. 

The Haidah Indians of Queen Charlotte's Islands. By James G. 
Swan. Quarto. Washington, 1874. 

2 4 8 8 2423 8 4 3 4 
^^5 3 > 9 • 

Vocabulary of the English and Malay Languages. By Frank A. Swetten- 
ham. 2 vols., 12mo. Singapore, 1881. 
Vol. I., S^K 

Voyages, Relations et M6moires Originaux pour Servir a I'Histoire de la 
Decouverte de l'Am6rique. Publics par H. Ternaux-Compans. Vol. 
IX. First Series. 8vo. Paris, 1838. 

Relation du Voyage de Cibola, Enterpris en 1540. 

.24 3X 24 3 2 2434 2 4 3_5. 243 6 2_4 3 1 2 4 3 8 

^w^} ^4~> 715 "1^6 > Txo > "1?"?) ifr- 

Voyages, Relations et Memoires Originaiix pour Servir a I'Histoire de la 
Decouverte de I'Am^rique. Publics par H. Ternaux-Compans. Sec- 
ond Recueil de Pieces sur le Mexique. 8vo. Paris, 1840. 

%V"> "Vt6^* '^'^^ ^^*'^ Zumarraga, Salmeron, Ramerez, and Men- 

doza. 

Voyages, Relations et Memoires Originaux pour Servir a I'Histoire de la 
Decouverte de I'Amerique. Publics pour la Premiere Fois en Fran- 
§ais, par H. Ternaux-Compans. Recueil de Pieces sur la Floride, Svo. 
Paris, 1841. 

Contributions to North American Ethnology. Vol. V. Quarto. Wash- 
ington, 1882. 
A Study of the Manuscript Troano, by Cyrus Thomas, Ph. D. 

2A4J. 5JL41 SAAS 2_4 42. 
■ 6 1 J 104 J 1 9¥ J 1^1 • 

Les Migrations des Peuples, et Particulidrement celle des Touraniens. Par 
Ch. E. de Ujfalvy de Mezo-Kovesd. 8vo. Paris, 1873. 

.24 5 
•6 6 • 

Mexican Paper — An Article of Tribute. By Ph. J, J. Valentini, Ph. D. 
Svo. Worcester, 1881. 

24|3. 

Venegas, Miguel. — Histoire Naturelle et Civile de la Californie. Traduite 
de I'Anglois, par M. E. 3 vols., 18mo. Paris, 1767. 

Vol. I, mi 

M. Viollet-le-Duc. See le Due. 



APPENDIX. T37 



L'Ann6e G^ographique. Third Year. 8vo Paris 1865 

Chapter entitled "Une Vieille Histoire Remise a Flot. By M. 
Vivien de Saint-Martin. 



h'i- 



A Vocabulary of the English, Bugis, and Malay Languages. 8vo. Singa- 
pore, 1833. 



S^- 



1 pTNew Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America. By Lionel 
\' Wafer. 8vo. London, 1699. 

^m-, ¥o¥, \V¥-, %¥' ^w- 

Report upon United States Geographical Surveys West of the 1 00th Me- 
ridian, in Charge of First Lieut. George M. Wheeler. Vol. VII. 
Archaeology. Quarto. Washington, 1879. 

^F, m^, ^^' ¥^' "^-^^ ^'^' 

Reports of Explorations and Surveys from the Mississippi River to the 
Pacific Ocean. 12 vols., quarto. Washington, 1856. 

Vol III Article entitled "Report upon the Indian Tribes By 
Lieut. A. W. Whipple, Thomas Ewbank, Esq., and Professor Wilham 
W. Turner. 

\*tV% ¥i^' -W-. h'^h ¥^- 

Magazine of American History. Vol. IX., No. 4, April, 1883 

Article entitled " Concerning Fusang '> ; containing a letter from the 
Rt. Rev. Channing M. Williams. 
Reference No. 2483. 
The Middle Kingdom. By S. Wells Williams. Fourth edition. 2 vols., 
8vo New York, 1861. 

Vol I %W-, ^^8% ¥#-> W^ W^' Wf, hWS h9i- 

■ Vol II., iS ^' 5r, ^. HF, ^F, w, ¥AS 

%S %^ ¥^. W^-, W> -Vi^f , ¥i^S W/, ¥t¥, ¥^, 

A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language. By S. Wells Williams, 
T T "n Onavto. Shanghai, 1874. 

i±' =ir.' v4 .«* w# w. V* ^. v#. w, 

-V w w m 44 vJt. w. w> v^. w, 
2^' ^' #, #, ^ 4s Wf. V* VA^. w. 
Iv', w. ^: ivA ^. ¥,v, m f«5, H«. m, 

««, «». ¥/#• 



738 APPENDIX. 

Notices of Fu-sang, and Other Countries Lying East of China. By Profes- 
sor S. Wells Williams. Presented to the American Oriental Society, 
October 25, 1880. 

Reference No. 2581. 

Las Historias del Origin de los Indios de Esta Provincia de Guatemala. 
Traducidas por el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenez. Svo. Vienna, 1857. 

8 5 8 2 
Yl 1 • 

Tres Relaciones de Antiguedades Peruanas. Publfcalas el Ministerio de 
Fomento. 8vo, Madrid, 1879. 

Article entitled "Relacion de Antiguedades deste Reyno del Piru." 
Por Don Joan de Santacruz Pachacuti Yamqui. 

25 8 3 

Historia de Mejico. Por D. Niceto de Zamacois. 11 vols., 8vo. Barce- 
lona and Mexico, 1877-80. 

Vol II -^JA^- ^ JfiS 258_8 25 8 9 2 5 90 8 5 9 1 2598 25 9 3 

5 5 9_5_ M_96 8 5 9 7 85 9 8 
6^9 8 > 7 4r^> ^TSI J ^Ol • 

Second Recueil de Pieces sur le Mexique. Published by H. Ternaux- 
Compans. Svo. Paris, 1840. 

Letters to the King of Spain ; written by Juan de Zumarraga, Bishop 
of Mexico. 

3600 8601 5602 2 6 3 
^ST^i 7 5 8 8 J 11 T"- 



Quotations made by other writers, from the works of the 
authors named below, are repeated m this book, i. e. : 

Abeel, Rev. David, 243. Biedma, Luis Hernandez de, 169. 

Acosta, Joseph de, 32, 33, 101, 112, Boturini Bernaducci, Cavaliere Lo- 

500, 577. renzo, 145, 393. 

Allen, Francis A., 200. Bradford, Alex. W., 168. 

Aratus, 145. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Abb6, 111, 

Armstrong, Alex., 245, 346, 347. 128. 

Audubon, J., 429. Bretschneider, Dr. E., 242. 

Baer, K. E. von, 81. Brickell, John, 429. 

Bailly, Jean Sylvain, 146, 147, 158. Buchanan-Hamilton, Francis, 545. 

Bancroft, H. H., 199, 231, 241, 245. Buifon, Georges Louis Leclerc, 

Bartolli, P. Dan., 163. Comte de, 49. 

Beechey, Capt. F. W., 102. Burgoa, Francisco de, 538, 539, 606. 

Bell, John, 112. Burnouf, Eugene, 71, 72, 124, 126. 

Berlandier, Dr. 428. Bustamante, Carlos Maria de, 169. 



APPENDIX. 



Y39 



Cabrera de Cordove, L., 116. 

Cabrillo, Jnan Eodriguez, 427. 

Carbajal Espinosa, Francisco, 500. 

Carriedo, Juan B., 538. 

Oasas, B. de las, 542, 579. 

Castaneda de Nagera, Pedro de, 74, 
115, 116, 169, 170. 

Castaneda, Luciano, 132. 

Catherwood, F., 129, 134. 

Catlin, George, 123, 199. 

Charlevoix, Fr. Xav. de, 35, 427. 

Chateaubriand, Viscount de, 75. 

CUzj, A. L. de, 152. 

Choris, Louis, 346. 

Cie§a de Leon, Pedro de, 170. 

Clavigero, Francesco Saverio, 96, 
97, 145, 500, 614. 

CogoUudo, Diego Lopez, 551. 

Coleman, C, 134. 

Coronado, Francisco Vasquez de, 
31, 430. 

Coxe, Wm., 846. 

Crawfurd, John, 72, 127, 128, 135. 

Cronise, Titus Fey, 489. 

Davis, W. W. H., 436. 

Diaz del Castillo, Bernal, 99. 

Drake, Francis, 370. 

Dupaix, Capt. Guillermo, 72, 199. 

Duran, F. Diego. 467, 500. 

Edrisi, Abu Abdallah M. Ben, 94. 

d'Eichtal, Gustave, 199. 

Forster, John Reinhold, 83. 

Fuentes j Guzman, 588. 

Gallatin, Albert, 500. 

Garcia, Gregorio, 112. 

Gaubil, Pere, 20, 82, 147. 

Gemelli Carreri, Giovanni Francis- 
co, 500, 615, 616. 

Gerainus, 45. 

Gentil, M. le, 147. 

Gobineau, Count de, 179. 

Gomara, Francisco Lopez de, 115, 
145, 154, 167, 169, 430, 493, 508. 

Gondra, Don Isidro R., 538. 



Greaves, John, 499. 

Grotius, H., 112. 

Guignes, Jos. de, 425. 

Hamy, M. E-T., 543. 

Hanlay, J., 171, 172. 

Heckewelder, Kev. John, 349. 

Hennepin, Louis, 427. 

Herrera, Antonio de, 98, 420, 427, 

454, 493, 523, 557, 572, 617. 
Hesiod, 158. 

Hieronimus d'Angelis, 102. 
Higgins, Godfrey, 552. 
Hodgson, B. H., 124. 
Hoffman, J., 176, 
Home, George, 31, 34. 
Hugo, J., 112. 
Humboldt, Alex, von, 14, 69, 100, 

112, 158, 167, 168, 210, 500, 546. 
Humboldt, "Wm. von, 545. 
Hyde, Thos., 619. 
Icazbalceta, Joaquin Garcia, 398. 
Ixtlilxochitl, F. de Alva, 365. 
James, Edwin, 428. 
Jarves, J. J., 102. 
Jaubert, Chevalier, 71. 
Juarros, Domingo, 588. 
Kaempfer, Engelbrecht, 29. 
Kalm, Peter, 426. 
Keane, A. H., 621. 
Keating, Wm. H., 427. 
Kennon, Col. Barclay, 8, 171. 
Kingsborough, Lord, 132, 136, 365. 
Klemm, Gustave. 500. 
Koeppen, C. F., 141. 
Laet, Joannes de, 427, 500. 
Landa, Diego de, 167, 168, 420. 
Langsdorff, G. H. von, 122. 
Latrobe, Charles Joseph, 608. 
Lawrence, ^Villiam, 426. 
Lay, G. T., 338. 
Ledyard, John, 345. 
Leidy, Dr. J., 429. 
Leland, C. G., 200, 231, 247. 
Lenoir, Alex., 127, 136, 199. 



740 



APPENDIX. 



Leon, Martin de, 500. 
Leon y Gama, A. de, 500, 501. 
Lewis and Clarke, Capts., 75, 349. 
Long, Maj. S. H., 428. 
Lopez, Geronimo, 493. 
Lorenzana, Arzobispo F. A., 501. 
Loureiro, J. de, 94, 195. 
Low, Oapt. Jas., 133, 554. 
Lubbock, Sir J., 118. 
Maldonado, Juan Alvarez, 496. 
Martin, Pere, 427. 
Martyr, Peter, 98, 472. 
Maundevile, Sir John, 159. 
Maury, Lieut. M. F., 121, 122, 131. 
Mendieta, Geronimo de, 398. 
Miles, Colonel W., 82. 
Mofras, Duflot de, 68, 75. 
Molina, Alonso de, 65. 
Morrison, M. C, 243. 
Motolinia (Toribio de Benavente), 

197, 398, 500. 
Mueller, J. W. von, 500. 
Niza, Fra Marcos de, 170. 
Oviedo y Vald6s, G. F. de, 493. 
Pauthier, G., 74. 
Piedrahita, Don Lucas F., 560. 
Pinto, F. Mendez, 243. 
Plan-Carpin, J. du, 570. 
Polo, Marco, 159. 
Pratz, Le Page du, 426. 
Prescott, William H., 96-99, 158, 

172, 210. 
Pvafn, C. Christian, 116. 
Rennell, J., 445. 
Richardson, John, 846. 
Rio, Antonio del, 133. 
Riviero, Mariano Eduardo, 162. 
Rosny, L6on de, 174. 
Rubrnquis, G. de, 570. 
Sabin, M. de, 126, 188. 
Sahagun, Bernardino de, 169, 237, 

365, 500, 615. 



Saint Pierre, Bernardin de, 68. 

Schmidt, L J., 545. 

Schoolcraft, Henry R., 453. 

Siebold, P. F. de, 86. 

Simpson, James H., 436. 

Smith, Capt. John, 349. 

Soto, Fernando de, 169, 431. 

Squier, E. G., 133. 

Stephens, John L., 127, 134, 199. 

Stevenson, Dr. J., 545. 

Stolberg, Count, 546. 

Swift, Dean J., 243, 709. 

Taylor, Isaac, 570. 

Ternaux-Oompans, Henri, 62, 74i 

115, 169, 617. 
Titsingh, I., 85. 
Tonti, Chevalier de, 31. 
Torquemada, Juan de, 101, 145, 

369, 430, 500, 542, 579. 
Trigault, P., 499. 

Tschudi, John James von, 544, 602. 
Turner, Oapt. S., 570. 
Tylor, Edward B., 522, 620, 621. 
Valades, P. F., 145. 
Valmont de Bomare, 59. 
Vasquez, Antonio, 588. 
Vater, Johann Severin, 143, 158. 
Venegas, Miguel, 427. 
VeniaminoflF, Ivan, 6, 121, 350, 356. 
Vetancurt, Augustin de, 500. 
Veytia, Don Mariano, 365, 500, 

538. 
Villagutierre Soto-Mayor, Juan de, 

651. 

VioUet-le-Duc, M. , 199, 546. 

Waldeck, Frederic de, 134, 199, 

200. 
Whipple, A. W., 123. 
Wrangell, Admiral F. von, 121. 
Yule, Col. H., ni. 
Zuago, Alonzo, 475. 
Zurita, Alonzo de, 99. 



IIsTDEX. 



Transcriptions of Chinese words, in small capitals ; English, in Roman ; and 
other languages, in Italics, 

, 376 ; a double species, 236 ; resem- 

blance to cacti, 394 ; called a this- 
tle, 398; called hemp, 173; called 
a tree, 384; indifference to soil, 
386; value to the Aztecs, 98, 173, 
375, 379 ; sprouts, 390 ; resem- 
blance to those of bamboo, 389; 
edibility, 390 ; thorny leaves, 388 ; 
used as fuel, 525 ; lye made from 
its ashes, 525 ; thorns used in pen- 
ance, 544 ; not mentioned in ac- 
count of Fu-sang, 195 ; plants used 
as hedges, 399 ; size of flowering- 
stalks, 383; used as beams, 386; 
period for blossoming, 400 ; de- 
scription of fiber, 393; its value, 
521 ; called " silk," 521 ; the leaves 
the " silk-worms " of Fu-sang, 525 ; 
preparation of fiber, 526 ; uses, 98 ; 
paper made therefrom, 392; cloth 
made therefrom, 392; sap called 
" milk," 397 ; liquor made from 
sap, 98, 196, 384. 397 ; now called 
" pulque," 384, 397 ; said not to be 
mentioned in account of Fu-sang, 
235; called v.ihili, 380; or octli, 
397 ; described as wine, 533 ; whit- 
ish like whey, 397 ; plant identified 
as the fu-sang tree, 165 ; said not 
to be the fu-sang tree, 194 ; did it 
exist in Corea 1 401 ; its introduc- 
tion in China, 173. See, also, Ma- 
guey and Fu-sang tree. 

Age, great, of Japanese, 631 ; of Japa- 
nese sovereigns, 624. 

Age at which inhabitants of Country 
of Women became adult, 306. 

Age to which pygmies live, 494, 

Age of mines near Lake Superior, 118. 

Age of Mexican pyramids and tem- 
ples, 598. 

Age, how reckoned by Buddha, 464. 



Abaneay, pyramids in, 565. 

Abara, a name of Tuma, 563. 

Abbassides, an Arabic dynasty, 37. 

Ahhayagiri, a pyramid in Ceylon, 603. 

Ahhyavakdshilca, definition of, 443. 

Abode of the dead, Aztec road to, 590. 

Absinthe, a plant resembling, 30 ; 
Mexican, 508 ; sage-brush so called, 
509; eaten by animals, 511. See, 
also, Artemisia. 

Abuya, an Amazon town, 493. 

Abyssinia, idols in, 71. 

Acalan, tame deer kept in, 431. 

Acatl, a Mexican sign, 150. 

Achiofl, seeds of, 471. 

Achiutla, high-priest of, 579. 

Adam, M. Lucien, article by, 193. 

Adam's Peak, Buddha's foot-prints 
on, 72, 553. 

Adams County, Ohio, bones found in, 
429. 

Adobes, used in construction of pyra- 
mids, 605. 

Adobe walls, boards used in con- 
structing, 419; in Fu-sang, 268 ; in 
Country of Women, 314 ; in Cali- 
fornia, 518. 

Adultery, punishment of, in Mexico, 
437. 

Afghanistan, Cophene situated in,446. 

Africa, conquests in, by Arabs, 37; 
unknown to Europeans, 454. 

Agates, found in Alaska, 356. 

Agate-gem, a mythical tree, 416. 

Agave (American aloe, maguey, metl, 
or century-plant); peculiarities of, 
400 ; description of, 98, 195, 384 ; 
illustration of, 385 ; abundance of, 
in Mexico, 98, 394 ; reproduction 
of, 400; Mexican name for, 375, 



Y42 



INDEX. 



Age, how reckoned in China and 
Japan, 464. 

Ages, four, Hindoo account of, 615. 

Agnese, Baptiste, map drawn by, 370. 

Agriculture, taught by the Toltecs, 
430. 

Ahuacatl, a Mexican fruit, 587. 

Ainos, description of, 83, 85 ; de- 
scribed as " Haiiy People," 681 ; 
gro^vth of hair upon, 84 ; home of, 
84; tattooing, 84; dwellings, 86; 
differences between, and Tartars, 
187 ; resemblance to American 
tribes, 143 ; accompanied a Japa- 
nese embassy, 85 ; identified as the 
WIN ShIn, 84, 186. 

Akatsuma. See Atsuma. 

Akwa, king of Pe-tsi, 627. 

Alabaster used for ornamenting build- 
ings, 528. 

A-LAN-JO, definition of, 441. 

Alarcon, expedition of, 169. 

Alaska, meaning of the name, 339; 
communication between, and Asia, 
9 ; visited from Karatchatka, 183 ; 
distance from Karatchatka, 164; 
from Central America, 183 ; at dis- 
tance stated from Fu-sang, 189; 
excursion to, from Oregon, 447 ; as 
much west of Mexico as north, 361 ; 
breakers near, 340 ; Japanese crew 
wintered near, 101 ; Ilwui Shan's 
description of, 324, 326; precious 
stones found in, 356 ; climate, 121, 
354; identified as Great Han, 93, 
336. 

Alaskans, religious ideas of, 6 ; hospi- 
tality, 348; kindness, 350; merry 
nature, 347 ; fondness of orna- 
ments, 352 ; tattooing, 345 ; inunda- 
tions of dwellings, 354; lack of 
fortifications, 351 ; trials of medi- 
cine - men, 357 ; punishment of 
witches, 357 ; language, 344 ; word 
" Shaman " in, 6 ; customs same as 
those of Aleuts, 344. 

Albinos in America, 506. 

Aleutian Islands, skirted by Pacific 
gulf-stream, 9; peaks of a sub- 
marine mountain-chain, 9 ; connect 
Asia and America, 8, 9, 39 ; route 
to Fu-sang passed via, 447 ; bound- 
ary between two seas, 8 ; climate, 
9, 121 ; breakers upon, 340 ; shiji- 
wrecks upon, 10; large \yild ani- 
mals exterminated in, 357 ; descrip- 
tion of, 122 ; identified as land of 
WXn ShXn, 92, or " Marked Bodies," 
835; Ainos in, 84; population of, 341. 



Aleutian family, members of, 90. 

Aleuts, tradition as to former home, 
340; voyages made by, 171 ;. de- 
scription of, 86 ; hospitality, 348, 
350 ; merry nature, 347 ; tattooing, 
92, 345, 346; boring of nose, etc., 
92 ; fondness of ornaments, 352 ; 
hats made by, 352 ; dwellings, 353 ; 
lack of fortifications, 351 ; chiefs 
of, 351 ; all Esquimaux, 344 ; lan- 
guage, 344 ; customs same as those 
of Alaskans, 344 ; no money used 
by, 356. 

Alexander the Great, fables regard- 
ing, 95. 

Aliman, a Mexican province, 491. 

Alkalies, used in preparing agave- 
fiber, 526. 

Alligator-pear, a Mexican fruit, 587. 

Allowances to be made for errors in 
Hwui Shan's story, 335, 708. 

Almaizar, a garment, 617. 

Aloe. See Agave. 

Alpacas, possibly called " horses," 59. 

Alphabet introduced into China, 440. 

Alphabet of Yucatan, inventor of, 556. 

Altars, Buddhist, 133. 

Altars upon pyramids, 600. 

Alum used as a mordaunt, 471. 

Alvarado, welcomed with music, 424. 

Amanam, designation of priests, 74. 

AmarsinJi, reference to works of, 144. 

Amazons, Hwui Shan's account of, 
93 ; mention by Maundeviie and 
Marco Polo, 244; by Lily, 454; 
tales regarding, 213, 487, 488, 489, 
490, 491, 492, 493 ; explanation re- 
garding, 226; derivation of name, 
489. See, also, "Women, Country of. 

Amber, prized by Aleuts and Chinese, 
357. 

America, Buddha's command a suflB- 
eient reason for visiting, 8, 684 ; 
Who Discovered? 171 ; several dis- 
coveries, 193 ; thought to be Mero- 
pide, 55 ; visited by Northmen, 49 ; 
and by Irish, 92 ; ancient relations 
of other nations with, 56 ; western 
coast of long unexplored, 54, 55 ; 
discovery by Russians, 22 ; its 
northwestern coast, 28 ; its pecul- 
iarities, 447 ; trend of the coast, 
360 ; suggestion that Chinese came 
from, 220 ; natural marvels, 233 ; 
routes by which crossed, 549 ; made 
for Americans, 201 ; its oldest his- 
tory, 95 ; Chinese transcription of 
the name, 406 ; pygmies in, 496 ; 
animals of, 115 ; different from 



INDEX. 



743 



those of Old World, 426 ; but given 
names of those of Europe, 33 ; cat- 
tle brought to, by Columbus, 427 ; 
horses and mammoths in, 203 ; 
elephants in, 608; deer, 69; flora 
connected with that of Asia, 97 ; 
imperfect knowledge of flora of, 
165 ; vines in, 94, 110, 116, 211, 
212, 415 ; no fu-sang tree m, 189 ; 
identified as Fu-sang, 118, 140; 
not Fu-sang, 189 ; no other large 
country east of China and Japan, 
57; ease of voyage to, from Asia, 
8, 121, 139, 155, 171, 183, 193, 194, 
447, 685; difficulties of voyage, 
190 ; reached by Pacific gulf- 
stream, 9 ; winds toward, 63 ; dif- 
ferent steps of route to, known by 
natives, 685 ; Chinese and Japanese 
may have drifted to, 241 ; Chinese 
voyage to, 19, 168 ; known by Chi- 
nese and Japanese, 104 ; and by 
other Asiatic tribes, 87 ; migi-ation 
to, very early, 159, 160; probable 
communication with Asia, 158 ; be- 
lief therein, 621 ; lack of proof, 122, 
351 ; communication with, by Bud- 
dhists, 7, 113, 162, 197; how peo- 
pled, 34, 35, 81, 231 ; Asiatic tribes 
transplanted to, 153 ; not peopled 
by Asiatics, 180. See, also, Alaska, 
Oregon, California, Arizona, New 
Mexico, Mexico, Yucatan, Guate- 
mala, Anahuac, Palenque, Peru, 
Bogota, and South America. 
American tribes, not autochthones, 
76; civilization of, 168; confined 
to Pacific coast, 173, 708 ; resem- 
blance of, to Asiatics, 35, 36. 81, 87, 
110, 111, 155, 158, 172, 184, 516 : all 
of same race, 622; wars of, 198; 
cruelty of, 33; extermination of 
some tribes, 33, 95 ; decadence of, 
132, 153 ; fondness for wandering, 
348 ; reliance upon hospitality, 349 ; 
councils of. 436; tattooing, 345, 
346 : serpents worn as ear-orna- 
ments, 680 ; arch not known by, 
605 ; milk not used by, 190 ; paper 
made by, 194 ; copper used by, 117; 
iron unknown to, 117, 194; work- 
ing of stone bv, 151 ; fortifications 
of, 198 ; ruins" left by, thought to 
be like those of Asia, 72 ; customs 
and arts of, like those of Asia, 112, 
142, 160. 200, 706, 707; traditions 
of, explained in different ways, 199, 
201 ; religion of, 157 ; Christian in- 
^uence thought to be found among, 



199; languages of a common origin, 
81 ; similarity to those of Asia, 156 ; 
inscriptions might be read by Chi- 
nese, 156 ; introduction of appella- 
tion " Shaman," 6 ; cities of, with 
Asiatic names, 111. 
American Oriental Society, article 

read before, 230. 
American Philological Magazine, quo- 
tations frora, 16, 161. 
Amethysts found in Alaska, 356. 
Amoor" River, exploration of valley of, 
187; nature of country near, 24; 
Buddhist monuments near, 126 ; 
tribes near, 82, 87, 187 ; Hyperbo- 
reans lived near, 55, 63 ; ease of voy- 
age from, to America, 194 ; distance 
from LiEU-KuEi, 26, 87 ; on route 
to Great Han, 126 ; which was near 
mouth of, 137, 186, 188. 
Anadir, gulf of, 82. 
Anahuac, meaning of term, 96 ; arrival 
of Aztecs in, 96 ; civilization of, in- 
fluenced by Asia, 160; reign of 
Quetzalcoatl in, 541 ; languages of, 
111 ; Aztec languages spoken in, 
366. 
Ananda, garments made by, 553. 
Anchitherium, an equine genus, 483. 
Anchors of Mexico and China, 155. 
Anderson, Major, essay by, 76. 
Androg^Tiae, descriptions of, 451, 454. 
Angara' River, Chinese name of, 24, 

45 ; Great Hax near, 247. 
AxG-KO-LA, Chinese name of the An- 
gara, 24, 45. 
Anian, strait of, 14, 28. 
Animals, floated on cakes of ice, 36. 
American, 115 ; different from those 
of Old World, 426 ; figures of, in 
pairs, 129 ; none used by Aztecs, 
99; fantastic descriptions of, in 
Shan Hai King, 678 ; gods with 
bodies of, 651, 665. 
Annals of Voyages, articles from, 

16. 
Annual Registei-s of China and .Japan, 
84, 85, 86, 87. See, also, Nan-sse, 
LiASG-ssE, and Nijion-Ki. 
Anfaravdsaka, a Buddhist robe, 553. 
Antelopes, gait of, 452 ; migrations 
of, 512 ; possibly called " horses," 
484. 
An-t'o-hoei, a Buddhist robe, 553. 
Ants larger than foxes, 451. 
Anurudhapura, pyramids of, 602. 
Anuswara, nasals"reserabling, 541. 
Apaches, courtship of, 433; esijcdi- 
tion against, 390. 



744 



INDEX. 



Apes, mistaken for men, 516 ; worship 
of, 495, See, also, Monkeys. 

Apianus, map drawn by, 370. 

Apollo, offerings to, by Hyperboreans, 
55. 

Apollonius, life of, 59, 69. 

Apples, said to exist in Fu-sang, 213. 

Ara, a tribe of Ainos, 85. 

Arabia, pygmies in, 494. 

Arabs, knowledge by, of CKpe Verde 

Islands, 38 ; knowledge of eastern 

lands, 94 ; accounts by, of land of 

Amazons, 94, 488 ; explorations of, 

^ 37 ; voyages of, to China, 446. 

Ai-anijaka, definition of, 441. 

Aratus, reference to, 146. 

Arawack, grammatical peculiarities 
of. 111. 

Arch, not known to Americans, 605 ; 
a species of false, 605. 

Archipelago on American coast, 448. 

Architecture of Mexican monuments, 
96 ; similarity to that of Asia, 136, 
155. 

Arctic Ocean, entered by Pacific gulf- 
stream, 9 ; visited by Tartarian 
tribes, 25 ; Chinese knowledge of, 
82. 

Arctic region, Herodotus's descrip- 
tion of, 451. 

Ardahnari, group attributed to, 129. 

Argippeans, a peaceful tribe, 59. 

Arikaras, dwellings of, 354. 

Ariki, kings of Oceanica, 61. 

Arizona, vines in, 415 ; mirrors in, 
522 ; not Pu-sang, 196. 

Arms of Japanese, 164, 631, 640. 

Arms not used in Great Han, 216, 
324 ; or in Fu-sang, 207, 270. 

Armour of quilted cotton, 420, 618. 

Arrakan, candidates for priesthood in, 
582. 

Arrian, works of, 95 ; description of 
Cophene liiver, 445. 

Art, American, analogies of, 200. 

Arts taught by Quetzalcoatl, 542. 

Arts taught by Buddhist priests, 572, 
620. 

Arts, East Indian, existing in Fu- 
sang, 76. 

Artemisias, eaten by animals, 511 ; 
aroma of, 510; varieties of, 510. 
See, also, Absinthe, 

Artemisia Laciniata, an Asiatic plant, 
508, 

Arfocarpus. See Bread-fruit tree, 
165, 

Asbestos, or " Salamander's wool," 
225, 532, 



Ascetics, found in many lands, 198. 
Asceticism of Aztec monks, 575, 
Ashes, criminals smothered in, 208, 

276, 435, 437, 
Ashes of the fu-sang used for lye, 

224, 
Ashes of dead collected in a vase, 

159. 
Asia, ease of voyage from, to America, 
8, 121, 139, 155, 171, 183, 193, 194, 
447, 685; belief in communication 
with America, 351, 621 ; communi- 
cation very remote, 160 ; connection 
of civilization with that of Amer- 
ica, 706, 707; no room in, for Great 
Han, 216; or Fu-sang, 105; un- 
known to Europeans, 454 ; Hawaii- 
ans said to have come from, 102 ; 
pyramids in, 601 ; veneration of the 
cross in, 552 ; punishment of crime 
in, 464, 

Asiatics, common civilization of, 620; 
use of arms by, 216; milk not used 
by, 621 ; civilization of, similar to 
that of Americans, 112,142; resem- 
blance of, to Americans, 35, 36, 81, 
87, 110, 111, 155, 158, 172, 184, 516; 
civilization of, introduced into Pu- 
sang, 456, 470 ; names of their cities 
applied to American cities, 111, 

Asiatic coast, Chinese knowledge of, 
82. 

Asiatic ecliptic, 144. 

Asiatic Society, foundation of, 66. 

Asiatic zodiac, its names repeated in 
those of the Mexican months, 143. 

Asoka, death of, 5. 

Aspen Mountain, 644, and River, 663. 

Assyrian art, analogies of, to that of 
America, 200. 

Astree, her place in the zodiac, 150. 

Astronomer Hi-Ho, 250. 

Astronomers of Hwang-ti, 221. 

Astronomical globes, invention of, 
221. 

Astronomical ideas of Mexicans and 
Asiatics, 148. 

Astronomical observations — Chinese 
never measured distances by, 330. 

Ata-sil, eight Buddhist command- 
ments, 567. 

Ateles, a species of Mexican monkey, 
496. 

Atemoztli, a Mexican month, 512. 

Athenaeum, account published by, 
202. 

Atka, language of people of, 344. 

Atl, Aztec word for water, 150. 

Atlantis, tales regarding, 56, 58. 



INDEX. 



745 



AtlcaTiualco, a Mexican month, 512. 

Atogi introduces writing into Japan, 
627, 

Atsoioma, or 

Atsiima, the Japanese Countiy of 
Women, 178, 639. 

Attou Island, distance of, from other 

• islands, 9. 

Atzacuatco, a ward of Mexico, 369. 

Aubin. Mexican books of, 167. 

Aukland, Lord, Director of Asiatic 
Society, 66. 

Aureola, about head of Buddha, 131, 
132. 

Aureola, origin of, 132. 

Author's translations, reasons for, 259, 
642. 

Avatcha, a Kamtchatkan port, 22, 
28. 

Avebury, monoliths of, 601. 

Avezac, de, conversations with, 68. 

Avocado-pear, a Mexican fruit, 587. 

Axum, idols at, 71. 

Azores, wood from America thrown 
on, 38. 

Aztecs, resemblance of, to Japanese, 
62 ; said to have come from Asia, 
34, 74 ; migrated from north, 32, 
149 ; arrival at Anahuac, 96 ; at 
Mexico, 362 ; migrations before 
Toltec era, 366 ; flight at time of 
conquest, 32 ; warlike nature, 190 ; 
cruelty, 74, 96 ; degeneration of, 
574 ; not builders of Mexican pyra- 
mids, 598 ; history of, does not run 
far back, 95 ; civilization derived 
from Toltecs, 365 ; coincidences 
with Asiatic civilization, 17, 706 ; 
explanation of civilization of, 622 ; 
religion, 157, 172 ; bloody nature 
of, ^77, 162 ; incongraity of, 574 ; 
Noah called Coxcox, 146 ; mytholo- 
gy, 154 ; resemblance of religion to 
that of Asia, 170, 615; to Bud- 
dhism, 97 ; to Roman Catholicism, 
568 ; absence of Christian doctrines, 
585 ; superstitions, 590 ; Hades of, 
459, 590 ; religious orders, 198 ; 
duties of, 576 ; discipline, 577 ; as- 
ceticism, 575 ; food, 577 ; garments, 
580 ; marriage, 581 ; resemblance to 
Buddhist priests, 582 ; a god of, 
613 ; modesty of idols of, 613 ; be- 
lief in return of Quetzalcoatl, 547 ; 
hieroglvphics or picture-writing, 34, 
168, 421, 536 ; books, 167, 618 : pa- 
per, 98 ; astronomical ideas like 
those of Asia, 148 ; zodiac resem- 
bling that of Asia, 149 ; not con- 



fined to Mexican animals, 149 ; 
months same as divisions of Asiatic 
zodiac, 143 ; cycles, 143 ; divisions 
of time, 475, 476 ; chronological sys- 
tem of, 159 ; calendar, 144 ; new- 
year, 500 ; months of, used at Nut- 
ka, 168; week of five days, 475, 
571 ; day Atl, 145 ; laws, 99 ; pris- 
ons, 459 ; punishment of criminals, 
437, 464, 465 ; councils, power of, 
436 ; monarchs, pomp of, 421, 423 ; 
mantles worn by, 472 ; marriage 
ceremonies, 479 ; slavery, 462; cot- 
ton armour, 618 ; resembling that 
of Tartars, 420 ; architecture resem- 
bling that of Chinese, 155 ; monu- 
ments near Gila River, 149 ; metals 
known, 431 ; iron unknown, 431 ; 
art of casting metals, 572 ; working 
gems, 416, 573 ; vases resembling 
those of Japanese, 573 ; mirrors, 
522 ; paints and dyes, 471 ; symbol- 
ism of colours. 616; dwellings, 419; 
garments, 617; cakes, 620, 708; 
markets, 432 ; barter, 432 ; uses of 
century-plant, 386 ; game of, 620 ; 
toys given by, 620 ; music, 422 ; 
mourning, 466 ; dogs, 147 ; tamed 
deer, 430 ; language, rules of, 540 ; 
abbreviations in, 376 ; extension of, 
366, 367 ; language same as that of 
Toltecs, 365 ; place-names, exten- 
sion of, 366 : words resembling Asi- 
atic words, 150 , term for milk, 397; 
its meaning, 398. See, also, Mexi- 
cans. 

Aztlan, civilization of, 149 ; meaning 
of name, 506. 

Azure Sea, Fu-sang in, 236. 

B 

Bacchacan, traditions regarding, 565. 
Backgammon or pachisi, 620. 
Bad Lands, beds of fossils in, 203, 
Baikal, Lake, 24, 45, 126, 187, 215. 
Bq/ucos, Mexican trees, 618. 
Balana-ko, Hindoo altars, 133. 
Bald Mountain, 646. 
Bamboos, shape of leaves of, 195, 
Bamboo-sprouts, illustration of, 389 ; 

edibility of, 390 ; mulberry-sprouts 

do not resemble, 164, 
Bamboo books, 659, 665, 677, 
Bamboo Mountain, 647. 
Banana, leaves and fruit of, 682 ; 

called pisang, 58, 405; identified- 

with the fu-sang tree, 642. 
Bancroft, H, H., comments of, on 



74:6 



INDEX. 



story of Fu-sang, 17; criticisms of, 

623. 
Baptize, Chinese transcription of, 404. 
Baradere, opinion of M., 573. 
Barbarians, Chinese name for for- 
eigners, 81. See, also, Eastern and 

Northern Barbarians. 
Bark, fiber produced from, 391 ; used 

for making paper, 167; extract 

used for mixing stucco, 605. 
Barking, by TtenQas, 106; language 

of Apaches compared to, 517. 
Barmany, pagodas of, 112. 
Barter, by Aleuts, 356 ; by Mexicans, 

432. 
Basques, visits of, to Newfoundland, 

113. 
Basque language, 111. See, also, Eus- 

karian. 
Bazin, M., article by, 670. 
Beans, eaten in Country of "Women, 

213, 314; raised by Aztecs, 517. 
Bean Mountains, 648. 
Bears, in Jesso, 681 ; exterminated in 

Aleutian Islands, 357. 
Beards, difference of, among different 

nations, 35 ; lack of, by Chinese, 84. 
Bearded men, traditions of, 490, 555. 
Beasts of burden, none in America, 

170, 190, 196, 481. 
Beautiful Green Hills, 658. 
Beavers, possibly described as sables, 

534. 
Begging, commanded to Buddhist 

monks, 441. 
Behring, discovery made by, 120. 
Behring's Island, 9; tattooing on, 

346. 
Behring's Strait, prediction of its ex- 
istence, 14 ; Mongolians near, 82 ; 

Pacific gulf-stream flows through, 

9 ; easily crossed, 183. 
Benares, Chinese transcription of, 

404. 
Bengal, nopal growing in, 76. 
Bhdgavat Purdnd, 152, 154. 
Bhavani, wife of Siva, 546. 
Bhikshu, title of Buddhist monks, 

42, 540 ; meaning of term, 440. 
Bhikshus, observances imposed on, 

440. 
Bibliography of discussion regarding 

Fu-sang, 13, 205. 
Big-bone Lick, bones found at, 428. 
Bignonia tomenfosa, said to be the 

T'UNG tree, 387. 
Binapa, an Amazon town, 493. 
Birch, Mr., Secretary of Royal So- 
ciety, 29. 



Birds, monkeys compared to, 535. 

Birds which bear human beings, 222, 
239, 534. 

Birds with hair, 644 ; with rats' legs, 
654, 680 ; with rats' tails, 651 ; with 
two heads, 661. 

Birds, Valley of, 644. 

Bisons found in America, 59, 69, 115 ; 
herds of, 169 ; description of, 427 ; 
in Montezuma's garden, 427 ; for- 
mer range of, 427; not found on 
Pacific coast, 196 ; use as draught 
animals, 169, 190; horns of, 428; 
weight of, 429 ; called vaccas, 115 ; 
or " cattle," 426. 

Bison latifrons, an extinct species, 
428, 429. 

Bitdra Gdna, or Ganesa, 611, 613. 

Bitumen on Mexican coast, 533. 

Black dye, bitumen used as, 533. 

Black-haired race, Chinese so called, 
498. 

Black-Hip Country, 660, 665. 

Black-People's Kingdom, 495. 

Black River, or Black-dragon River, 
the Amoor, 87. 

Black Stream. See Kuro-Siwo. 

Black-Teeth Country, 182, 633, 644, 
658, 664, 681. 

Black Valley, 225, 532. 

Blue and green confounded, 209, 471, 
616. 

Bluraer, Rev. A., discovery of ele- 
phant-pipe by, 610. 

Boa-constrictor, a symbol of the sun's 
course, 73. 

Boards used in constructing adobe 
walls, 419. 

Boats, of Alaskans, 29 ; with pelicans 
at bow, 168. 

Bochica, the hero of the Muyscas, 
543 ; teachings of, 560 ; came from 
Asia, 143 ; a Buddhist priest, 162 ; 
fabulous, 198 ; derivation of name, 
561. 

Bodhi-dlwrma, journey of. 440. 

Bodhi-sattwa, a class of Buddhists, 
485 ; title of KwAN Yin, 4 ; defini- 
tion of, 485. 

Bodleian Library, Chinese maps in, 
50 ; Mexican manuscript in, 464. 

Bogota, people of, 60 ; possibly visited 
by Buddhists, 62, 74 ; Japanese ori- 
gin of, 63 ; civilization of, derived 
from Asia, 15. 

Bokhara, said to be Ki-pin, 123, 213. 

Bonito, estufas at, 435. 

Book of Changes. See Y King. 

Book of Exhortations. See Lun-yu. 



INDEX. 



747 



Book of Filial Piety. See Hiao Kixg. 

Book of the Flowers of the Law, 635. 

Book of Mountains and Seas. See 
Shan Hai King. 

Book of the Waters, 674. 

Books burned in China, 220, 

Books of Mexicans, 167, 618 ; of Tol- 
tecs, 96; made from agave fiber, 
391. 

Border about seated figure, 132. 

Borgian Museum, manuscript of, 145. 

Borneo, voyages of people of, 36. 

Boro-Budor, temple of, in Java, 61, 
71, 135, 603. 

Bos Aynericanus. See Bison. 

Bos moschatus. See Musk-oxen. 

Botany of Chinese, 213. 

B6tpvs, Japanese transcription of, 42. 

Boun-zin. See Wax Shax. 

Bows and arrows, in Kamtchatka, 90 ; 
may have beea used in Fu-sang, 
208. 

Brahma, Chinese transcription of, 
404. 

Brahmanie hermit, Buddha a, 3. 

Brahmanism, its persecution of Bud- 
dhism, 5, 143, 446; mixture with 
Buddhism, 124, 126, 544 ; cruel rites 
of, 162, 544; practices similar to 
those of American tribes, 112, 198. 

Branches, divisions of time so called, 
682. 

Brasseur de Bourbourg, references to, 
16, 167, 500, 607. 

Brazil visited by Scandinavians, 49, 
63 ; road from, 563. 

Brazos River, bones found near, 428. 

Bread, of the Aztecs, 620. 

Bread-fruit tree, 165, 166. 

Breakers, about Aleutian Islands, 341. 

Breasts, women destitute of, 306 ; fe- 
male monkeys destitute of, 501, 502. 

Bretschneider, Dr. E., letter from, 174. 

Bricks, used in pyramids, 605. 

Bridal processions in China, 478. 

Bridges, suspension, in China and 
Mexico, 618. 

Bright Star Mountain, 664. 

Britains, Cassar's account of, 335. 

British Columbia, Chinese coins found 
in, 184 ; carved posts of Indians of, 
352. 

British Islands, a possible route to 
America, 37. 

Bronze, used by the Aztecs, 98. 

Bronssonefia papyrifera, 177 ; identi- 
fied as the fu-sang tree, 235 ; not 
found in Mexico, 236; used for 
making paper, 638. 



Brown, Rev. Nathan, Essay by, 161. 

Buache, Philippe, map made bv, 191. 

Buddha, birth of, 1 ; his father, 1 ; 
education 2 ; abandonment of his 
family, 3; his supposed discoveiy, 
3 ; his universal charity, 2, 3, 4 ; his 
command to teach his doctrine to 
all the world, 4, 125; dress pre- 
scribed by, 552, 553; his death, 
586; meaning of the appellation, 
2 ; his names, 1, 2, 587 ; his name 
in Chinese, 123, 404, 595 ; wide dis- 
tribution of images of, 171 ; images 
in Japan, 628, 629 ; image in Lon- 
don, 5 ; supposed images of in Yu- 
catan, 61, 71, 72, 77, 127, 128, 134, 
199, 594; foot-prints of , 553; pjTa- 
mids devoted to worship of, 601 ; 
symbolized by the elephant, 608; 
and by the cross, 552 ; anomaly in 
teachings of, 585 ; his command a 
sufficient motive for journey to 
America, 684 ; means for attaining 
the rank of, 3 ; similarity of Quet- 
zalcoatl to, 6, 112. 

Buddhism, gentle nature of, 74, 162 ; 
its acceptance of dogmas of other 
faiths, 97, 124; its respect of the 
gods of India, 124 ; of caste, 124 ; 
its proselj-ting spirit. 4, 80, 125 ; its 
mixture with Brahmanism, 124, 
126, 544 ; and with Sivaism, 72, 
124 ; persecution by Brahmans. 61, 
63, 14:3, 446 ; expulsion from Cen- 
tral India, 5 ; persecution in China, 
447: spread in China, 440; its in- 
troduction throughout Asia, 5, 80; 
in Japan, 47, 110. 121. 164, 628,635, 
641 ; in Corea. 62 ; in Eastern Si- 
beria, 153 ; in Fu-sang, 296 ; traces 
of in Alaska, 6; in Europe, 5; in 
Mexico. 96; its three jewels, 125; 
morality preached above ritualism, 
125; permitted only fruits and 
flowers as offerings. 133; recom- 
mended penance, 126; books of, 
asked for by Coreans, 527; trans- 
lated into Chinese, 440 : brought to 
Japan, 635 ; decalogue, 566 ; thought 
to have been influenced by Chris- 
tianity. 569 ; resemblance to Roman 
Catholicism, 568, 585; attempt to 
connect doctrines of Lao-tse with, 
79; resemblance of Aztec religion 
to, 172, 582. 

Buddhists, failure of to comply with 
their ndes, 585 ; eat flesh, 69, 586 ; 
but no milk, 69, 621. 

Buddhist monks, travels of, 7, 80, 193 ; 



748 



INDEX. 



records of journeys of, 8, 10; visits 
to Northeastern Asia, 138, 188; 
route north of China, 186 ; possible 
journeys to America, 113, 143; ob- 
ject of their travels, 10, 11, 80, 125; 
division into classes, 7 ; requirement 
to travel in companies, -^6 ; their 
character, 10; credit due to their 
accounts, 11, 80; garments of, 567; 
vows and duties of, 440, 582 ; pen- 
ances of, 583 ; punishment of for in- 
continence, 584 ; arts taught by, 572, 
620; councils of, 5; monasteries, 
569 ; nunneries, 583. 
Buddhist structures, temples in Ja- 
pan, 628 ; monasteries and convents, 
125 ; monuments near Amoor River, 
126, 138; resemblance to Mexican 

gyramids, 601-606 ; sanctuary at 
'alenque, 127; altars, 133, 134. 

Buddha Gayd, ruins of, 545. 

Buffaloes. See Bisons. 

BuUdings upon pyramids, 601. 

Bull, the bison so called, 427. 

Burets Teno, Emperor of Japan, 164. 

Burial of dead, by American tribes, 
159. 

Burlingame, Mr., Chinese embassador, 
179. 

Burmah received Buddhists, 5 ; dress 
of priests of, 585 ; badge of rank 
used in, 606. 

Burning Mountain, 225, 239, 530. 

Burning of books in China, 220. 

Burning of dead in Asia and Amer- 
ica, 159. 

Burnouf, Emile, 67, 678. 

Butter, made from milk of hinds, 100; 
in Fu-sang, 395 ; not used in China, 
396 ; or many other Asiatic coun- 
tries, 621. 

C 

Cabul, said to be Cophene, 446 ; nopal- 

plant found in, 76. 
Cabulistan, the coinitry of Ki-pin, 77. 
Cabul River, said to be the Cophene, 

445. 
Cacao, used as a medium of exchange, 

98, 432. 
Cacique, title of Indian chiefs, 60. 
Cactus, Mexico its native home, 894 ; 

introduction of from America, 77. 
Cacumatzin, visit to Cortez, 433 ; path 

swept before, 617. 
Cassar, his account of the Britains, 

335 ; repeated by Maundevile, 336 ; 

mistakes of, 451. 
Cakchiquels, garments of, 391. 



Cakes made by the Mexicans, 620, 

Calabash, carried by priests, 580. 

Calcutta, cochineal insects in, 76. 

Calendar of Mexicans, 143, 144, 501, 
571 ; introduced by Quetzalcoatl, 
547; introduction of Chinese in 
Japan, 630. 

California, route to from China, 22 ; 
gulf-stream on coast of, 9; Chi- 
nese and Japanese vessels on coast 
of, 9, 31, 101, 168 ; Fu-sang situated 
near, 20, 33, 55, 103 ; but not Fu- 
sang, 196 ; bisons in, 427 ; deer of, 
100; vines of, 415; Wellingtonia 
of, 219; climate of, 75; tales of 
Amazons in, 489 ; Indians of, 501 ; 
their dwellings, 518. 

Calli, Aztec word for house, 150. 

Calmucks, zodiac of, 149. 

Camaxtli, name of Huitzilopochtli, 
381 ; story regarding, 596. 

Camboge, received Buddhists, 5. 

Campeachy, image found at, 571. 

Camphor-plant, eaten by animals, 511. 

Camphor-wood trees, thrown on Un- 
alaska, 9. 

Canada, moccasins used in, 75 ; monu- 
ment with Tartarian characters in, 
112; reindeer of, 76; resemblance 
of natives to Tunguses, 112. 

Canadian voyageurs, their name for 
sage-brush, 510. 

Canary Islands, visited by Arabs, 37 ; 
voyages of natives of, 38. 

Canassatego, an Onondaga chief, 349. 

Candahar, said to be Ki-pin, 445, 446. 

Cannibalism, in Asia and America, 
158. 

Canoes of the Aleuts, 122. 

Cailon of the Colorado River, 533. 

Cantico, Mexican story of, 614. 

Canton, ice seldom "found at, 354; 
distance of from Pekin, 330. 

Cape of the Women of Yucatan, 489. 

Cape Verd Islands, visited by Arabs, 
38. 

Cappelen, M. van der, drawing of, 71. 

Capricoi'nus, a marine monster, 145. 

Capuchin monkeys, 498; origin of 
name, 506. 

Caracorum, the Mongolian capital, 44, 
187; on route to Great Han, 23; 
Chinese transcription of, 404. 

Carbonate of lime, use of by Aztecs, 
605. 

Caribs, defense of homes by women, 
489. 

Carnelians, found in Alaska, 356. 

Carolinas, called Great Ireland, 92. 



INDEX. 



749 



Carthaginians acquainted -with At- 
lantis, 56. 

Carts in Fu-sang, 24, 286, 480 ; none 
in Japan, 640; or America, 190; 
" the three," a Buddhist term, 484. 

Carvings of Haidah Indians, 353. 

Casas Grrandes, construction of, 419. 

Cashmere, said to be Ki-pin, 445. 

Caspian Sea, known to Chinese, 218, 
240. 

Cassiar, Chinese coins found at, 184. 

Caste, existing in India, 2. 

Castelnau, M. de, oxen found by, 69. 

Casting metals, art of, 572. 

Cataldino, Father, removal of, 562. 

Cathay, boats from, 169 ; mechanism 
made in, 573 ; name contained in 
Quatu-zaca, 74. 

Cattle, of America, 83, 85, 114; intro- 
duced into Mexico, 427; not raised 
in Japan, 631, 640 ; term applied to 
other animals, 426; striped like 
tigers, 644, 679; with a serpent's 
tail, 656 ; with a horse's tail, 653 ; 
with one foot, 667 ; probably pho- 
caceans, 679. 

Cattle-carts of Fu-sang, 286. 480 ; of 
India, 64 ; metaphoric use of term, 
485. 

Cattle-horns of Fu-sang, 210, 284, 
424. 

Catualcans, commerce of, 31. 

Cayotes, a tribe of the Apaches, 517. 

Celestial Mountains, visits to, 8. 

Celibacy of Buddhist priests, 582; 
not universal, 585. 

Cempoaltepec, a Mexican mountain, 
538, 539. 

Centaurs, description of, 454. 

Centenarians in Japan, 624, 631. 

Centeotl, goddess of maize, 578. 

CentU, Aztec term for maize, 315. 

Central America, belief of people of, 
461 ; colours distinguished in, 471 
volcanoes of, 531 ; mirrors used in 
524 ; false arch in ruins of, 605 
monuments, 71 ; pyramids, 598 
analogies to those of Asia, 601, 602, 
603 ; analogies of arts, 706 ; ex- 
planation of civilization,, 622. 

Central Flower, China so called, 80. 

Century-plant. See Agave. 

Ceres, place of, in zodiac, 150. 

Cervus Mexicanus, 69, 75. 

Cetu, an imaginary planet, 73. 

Ceylon, origin of," 488 ; conquest of, 
495 ; visited by Buddha, 553 ; re- 
ceived Buddhists, 5 ; religion of, 
125; caste in, 585;. pyramids of, 



602 ; married priests in, 585 ; em- 

bassv from, 446 ; Adam's Peak, 72. 
Cha Hill, 656. 

Chaacmol, an American figure, 606. 
Chacahua, 76, 77. 
Chacamarca, journey of Tonapa along, 

565. 
Chain, arguments not like links of, 

709. 
Cha-kiu country, 657. 
Chalcas, expedition against, 469. 
Chalchihuitl, a Mexican gem, 416; 

and a title, 417. 
Chaldea, radiation of civilization 

from, 131. 
Chambers in pyramids, 599, 601. 
Chametla, Guzman's army at, 491. 
Chan, an American tribe. 111. 
ChAn, a poisonous bird, 656. 
Chan, a wind, 665. 
Ch'an River, 649. 
Chances, application of doctrine of, 

359. 
Chang-hoa, a Chinese author, 674. 
Chang-jin, Kingdom of Giants, 36. 
Chang-k'ian, a Chinese general, 42. 
Chao-hao, spirits of, reign of, 671. 
Chao-hoa, commentary by, 673. 
Chao-shi, commentary by, 673. 
Chao-siex\, or Corea, 178, 630, 635, 

681. 
Chao-yang, or Corea, 657, 681. 
Chao-yao, mountain, 665. 
Chapati, cakes made in India, 620. 
Chajmpotli, description of, 533. 
Charlemagne, fables regarding, 95. 
Charles IV, Duke, globe of, 370. 
Charlevoix, Father, 564. 
Charnay, M. de, photographs by, 135. 
Chattering of monkeys, 498. 
Chaves, Gabriel de, 617. 
Che, Chinese characters for, 405. 
Ch'e,. character for " cart," 481. 
Chedshen, members of Aleutian fam- 
ily, 90. 
Cheese, of Fu-sang, 395 ; not made in 

America, 59, 190; not used in 

China, 396. 
Cheh-tan, a god, 665. 
Chen River, 654. 

Chepe-\v>'ans, an American tribe, 346. 
Chettro Kettle, estufas at, 435. 
Cheu dynasty, 83. 
Cheu - pu - CHANG, arrow found by, 

662. 
Cheu-li, a Chinese book, 647. 
Cheu-pang-yen, a Chinese poet, 675. 
Chi River, 645. 
Chiapas, or Zacatlan, 200, 501, 587. 



750 



INDEX. 



Chibchas, a South American tribe, 
561. 

Chichen, edifices of, 603, 604. 

Chichen-Itza, bas-relief at, 136 ; three 
brothers of, 557. 

Chichilticale, animals found near, 
115. 

Chichimccas, history of, 32, 62, 363 ; 
deer kept by, 430. 

Chiconahuapan, a river in Hades, 
590. 

Chie-keu, a species of bird, 651. 

Chih, or foot, length of, 331. 

Chihuahua, Ijisons in, 428. 

Chilan Balam, 551, 559. 

Children, manner of carrying, 620; 
toys given to, 620 ; school age, 463 ; 
sold as slaves, 463; treatment of 
illegitimate, 463. 

Chili, tradition in, 564. 

Chimaltizatl, a species of stone, 471. 

Chimizapagua. See Bochica. 

Chimsean Indians, 352. 

Chin, Fu-sang tree said to resemble, 
219. 

Ch'in, a Chinese dynasty, 40. 

China, called the Land of Han, 338 ; 
the " Central Flower," 57 ; capital 
of, 82 ; introduction of Buddhism, 
5, 7, 62; history of Buddhism in, 
440 ; marriage of priests in, 585 ; 
travels of monks from, 80 ; condi- 
tion in days of Hwui Shan, 440; 
emigration from, 83 ; pyramids in, 
601 ; ice in, 354 ; adobe walls, 419 ; 
vines in, 110; conquest of, by Mon- 
gols, 34 ; Fu-sang east of, 329 ; dis- 
tance to, 228 ; route from, to Great 
Han, 126 ; relations with Kam- 
tchatka, 123, 183 ; with Corea, 527 ; 
with Japan, 639; with Pacific isl- 
ands, 101 ; journeys from, to India, 
10, 113, 446; voyages to America, 
169. 

China, Great Annals of, 260. 

Chinese, mystery of origin of, 220; 
not credulous, 226; liberal with 
numbers, 175; precepts, 78, 79; 
vanity, 78, 80; insults to foreign 
nations, 80, 88; travels of, 18, 19, 
79 ; knowledge of foreign lands, 19 ; 
may have visited America, 36, 104, 
168, 241 ; no proof, 122 ; traces in 
British Columbia, 184; fragments 
of ship, 101 ; acquaintance with 
Japan, 178, 180, 229; with Ainos, 
84 ; with Lieu-kuei, 87 ; with Ha- 
waii, 100; knowledge of Fu-sang, 
12, 254, 642 ; of Kamtchatka, 180 ; 



of Asiatic coast, 82 ; of Pacific isl- 
ands, 83, 633 ; mistakes as to for- 
eign nations, 81 ; inquiries regard- 
ing foreign nations, 420, 519 ; de- 
mand for tribute, 520 ; custom of 
giving toys, 620 ; non-use of dairy 
products, 100, 396, 621 ; marriage 
ceremonies, 476 ; mourning - gar- 
ments, 468 ; method of arranging 
hair, 498 ; salt, 508 ; koumiss, 396 ; 
visits of foreigners, 79 ; hoi-ses, 484 ; 
roads, 330 ; suspension - bridges, 
618 ; knowledge of compass, 113 ; 
not acquainted with glass, 524 ; em- 
peror's garments, 471 ; laws punish- 
ing family of criminals, 64 ; nuns, 
583 ; persecution of Buddhism, 
447 ; cycles, 221 ; zodiac, 145 ; cal- 
endar, 630 ; new-year, 499 ; stand- 
ards of measure, 329 ; li not used 
in Japan, 331 ; customs in Fu-sang, 
65, 212, 234 ; architecture similar 
to that of Mexicans, 155 ; resem- 
blance to American tribes, 112, 184, 
516 ; maps show Fu-sang, 50, 94 ; 
account of pygmies, 495 ; of fairies, 
401 ; of monkeys, 514 ; of flying- 
men, 535 ; botanical classifications, 
213 ; accounts of Amazons, 488, 
489 ; of kingdoms of women, 213 ; 
of fu-sang tree, 399 ; engraving of 
native of Fu-sang, 75 ; burning of 
books, 220 ; Geography of the 
Worid, 242. 
Chinese language, peculiarities of, 256, 
403 ; characters, how composed, 
337 ; meaning of phrases, 256 ; 
deficiencies of dictionaries, 257 ; 
transcriptions of foreign words, 
253, 257, 404, 414 ; inability to ex- 
press certain sounds, 234, 403, 413 ; 
changes in, 709 ; changes in sound 
of characters, 404 ; method of writ- 
ing Sanskrit words, 440; love of 
brevity, 355 ; lack of punctuation, 
353 ; difficulty of translating, 255 ; 
etymologies, 339 ; substantive verl)s, 
444 ; signs of plural, 481 ; transla- 
tions of names, 339 ; grammar, 17 ; 
use in Japan, 629 ; not connected 
with American languages, 14; 
names in America, 111 ; term for 
Gautama, 558 ; for Buddha, 123, 
404, 495 ; names of constellations, 
523 ; authorities for account of Fu- 
sang, 260 ; account of Fu-sang, 262 ; 
of Country of Women, 302 ; of land 
of " Marked Bodies," 316 : of Great 
Han, 324 ; differences between dif- 



INDEX. 



751 



ferent versions, 261 ; unreliability 
of texts, 180; Hwni ShSn imper- 
fectly acquainted with, 709. 

Ching, a Chinese Buddhist term, 484. 

Chinggis Chakan, reference to, 82. 

Ching-mu classic, 659. 

Chin-nong, Herbal of, 674. 

Chinook Indians, description of, 75. 

Chippewa language, 398; traditions, 
611. 

Chiquito language. 111. 

Chiriquanos, resemblance to Asiatics, 
112. 

Chi-shuai, duties of the, 633. 

Ch'i-yiu, a soldier, 667. 

Chiu-yu, a species of animal, 649. 

CMvim, land from which Votan came, 
549. 

Chi-wu-ming-shi-tu-k'ao, 176, 177. 

Cho-long, the Luminous Dragon, 
225. 

Chocolate, used by Aztecs, 432. 

Cholollan, monuments of, 363. 

Cholula, reign of Quetzalcoatl at, 197, 
541, 543 ; monuments of, 142, 363, 
604, 605 ; entrance of Cortez, 154, 
423. 

Chorhan. See Ko-li-han. 

Christianity, spread of, 570 ; influ- 
ence of Buddhism upon, 570; ab- 
sence of its doctrines in Mexico, 
585 ; influences on American tribes, 
199 ; its slight effect upon the Az- 
tecs, 457. 

Chronicle of the kingdoms of Wu and 
YuE, 673. 

Chronological systems of Asia and 
America, 159. 

Ch'u or Chu-sang, the paper-mulber- 
ry, 638 ; not the f u-sang tree, 640. 

Chuen-hio, deluge in time of, 145 ; 
spirits of reign of, 671. 

Chu-ju, or Pygmy Country, 495, 633. 

Chu-jIj, a species of animal, 649. 

Chu-keu Mountain, 652. 

Chulotecas, a tribe of Nicaragua, 489. 

ChuniHc Akab, Maya term for mid- 
night, 476. 

Chung, a species of locust, 649. 

Chung Nam Shan, account given by, 
254. 

Chung-sheu-kiang-ch'ing, a city, 23, 
44. 

Chun-tsieu. See " Spring and Au- 
tumn." 

Chung- Yung's Country, 663. 

Chu-pieh fish, or cuttle-fish, 648. 

Chusan Islanders, 633. 

Chu-shing River, 645. 



Chu-shu, or " Bamboo Books," find- 
ing of, 677. 

Chu-shu, Land of, 84. 

Chwang-cheu, an author, 659. 

Chwang-tsz', an author, 659, 663. 

Chwen-sl'h, a Chinese emperor, 661. 

Cibola, description of, 170* meaning 
of name, 427 ; bisons of, 115, 196 ; 
sheep of, 430 ; vines of, 116 ; prick- 
ly-pears preserved in, 395 ; Palenque 
not situated in, 200. 

Cicuye, welcome of Alvarado at, 424. 

Giguatan. See Cihuatlan. 

Cihuacatzin, an Aztec general, 491. 

Cihuacoafl, an Aztec official, 467, 548. 

Cihuatl, Aztec word for woman, 514. 

Ciliuatlampa ehecatl, the west wind, 
490. 

Cihuatlan, the Mexican " Place of 
Women," 490, 491, 492. 

Cihuatlanque, Aztec marriage bro- 
kers, 479. 

Cinaloa, distance of, from IMexico, 427. 

Cinteotl, the Mexican Ceres, 150. 

Cintli, Aztec term for maize, 517. 

Cipadli, description of, 145. 

Circular pyramids, 600, 601 ; and 
temples, 604. 

Cities in Asia and America with the 
same names, 111. 

Civilization, radiation of, from Chal- 
dea, 131 ; on banks of Amoor, 138, 
187; of American tribes, 168; of 
New Mexico, 123 ; of Toltecs, 190 ; 
of America on Pacific coast, 31, 
173, 708; connection of American 
and Asiatic, 14, 17, 119, 142, 156, 
160 ; of Mexico, explanation of, 622. 

Clams, with pearly shells, 648. 

Classic of the Eastern Mountains, 644. 

Classic of Mountains and Seas. See 
Shan Hai King. 

Clavigero, reliability of, 96 ; reply to 
criticisms, 622. 

Clear River, 654. 

Clement of Alexandria, 570. 

Climate, of Kamtchatka, 89 ; of Aleu- 
tian Islands, 121 ; and Alaska, 122 ; 
of northwest coast of America, 9. 

Cloth made by Aztecs, 392; from 
fiber of century-plant, 384. 

Clothing, of people of Country of 
Women, 314. See, also. Garments. 

Co, meaning of Aztec termination, 
373, 406. 

Coahuila. bisons in, 428. 

Coatl, definition of, 548. 

Coatlicue, mother of Huitzilopochtli, 
614. 



752 



INDEX. 



Coatzacoalcos River, 367, 368. 

Coaxayacayo tilmatli, an Aztec man- 
tle, 472. 

Cochin-China, embassy from, 114. 

Cochineal, 76, 77, 471. 

Cocoa-nut water, use of, 605. 

Coeo-Maricopa courtship, 434. 

Cocomes, reign of, 558. 

Cocoons, not made by silk-worms of 
Fu-sang, 524. 

Code of Competitive Examinations, 
676. 

Codex Borgianus, 152. 

Codex Twano, 1(38. 

Coins, Chinese, found in British Co- 
lumbia, 184. 

Colimonte, a Mexican province, 491. 

Collars, an indication of slavery, 465. 

Colon, Fernando, map drawn by, 370. 

Colopeus, king of Amazonia, 488. 

Colorado, Village Indians of, 501. 

Colorado River, country near, 74; 
defensive works near, 198. 

Colorado River Canon, 532. 

Colours, in Asia, 470; in Central 
America, 471 ; in Mexico, 472 ; blue 
and green confounded, 471 ; con- 
nection with divisions of time, 99, 
470; used to designate years, 209, 
234 ; connected witli days of week, 
475; with points of compass, 475, 
615; colours of garments of king 
of Fu-sang, 282, 470 ; of priests of 
Salvador, 472 ; placed upon coi*pses, 
475 ; of courier's dress, 475 ; of 
walls of temples, 615; of inhab- 
itants of Country of Women, 505 ; 
of Mexican monkeys, 506. 

Columbia River, Fu-sang near, 55, 

. 68; Lewis & Clark's journey to, 
75 ; bar at mouth of, 69 ; villages 
near, 60 ; customs in valley of, 501. 

Columbus, preceded in America, 49 ; 
reasons for expecting to find land, 
38 ; called American ti'ibes " In- 
dians," 230 ; brought cattle to 
America, 427. 

Comitl, a Mexican hero, 566. 

Comitlan, music at, 424. 

Companions of the ]\Ioon, zodiacal 
divisions, 144. 

Compass, knowledge of, by Chinese, 
101, 113 ; introduction into Japan, 
627 ; colours connected with points 
of, 475, 615, 616; leading point of, 
615 ; described as a crow with eight 
feet, 678. 

Con, a Peruvian tradition about,, 566. 

" Concerning Fu-sang," 181. 



Conclusions to which Hwui ShSn's 
story should lead, 341. 

Confession, practiced by Buddhists, 
126, 569; in Mexico, 198; and in 
Nicaragua, 579. 

Confinement, places of, 270. See, 
also, Prisons. 

Confucius, difficulty of understand- 
ing, 256; Chun-tsieu, or "Spring 
and Autumn" of, 643, 649, 663, 
674; KiA-YU, or "Familiar Dis- 
courses " of, 672 ; demolition of 
house of, 672. 

Conifers, called Chin, 219 ; their 
resemblance to the century-plant, 
219. 

" Considerations Geographiques," 14. 

" Consideration of the Western and 
Southern Kingdoms," 674. 

Consistency, need of, in interpreta- 
tion, 342. 

Constantinople, Chinese transcription 
of, 404. 

Constellations, designation of, 523. 

Contice, a Peruvian tradition about, 
566. 

Continence of Mexican priests, 575, 
581. 

Continental Magazine, an article from, 
15. 

Convents established by Buddhists, 
125. 

Cook's Voyages, vocabularies in, 14. 

Copan, a colony of Toltees, 365 ; pyra- 
mfds at, 600 ; bas-relief at, 200. 

Cophene, description of, 123, 233 ; 
identification of, 445, 446; called 
Ki-PiN by Chinese, 42; Buddhism 
in, 446 ; Hwui Shan, a native of, 709. 

Copper, found in Japan, 47 ; first use 
of, 629, 636 ; imperfect purification 
of, 636; in America, 58, 117, 432; 
used by Aztecs, 98, 431 ; in Fu- 
sang, 288, 431 ; leaves of fu-sang 
tree said to resemble, 387. 

Copper bells made in America, 74. 

Copper Islands, near Kamtchatka, 9. 

Coppermine River, 58. 

Coral-tree, a mythical tree, 416. 

Corea, names of, 681 ; named Chao- 
siEN, 178, 630. 635, 657, 681 ; Chao- 
TANG, 657, 681 ; Valley of Sunrise, 
243 ; origin of name, 549, 626 ; in- 
tercourse with Japan, 332, 625, 630, 
639 ; route to Japan, 634 ; and dis- 
tance, 65 ; conquered by Chinese, 
178, 630'; intercourse with China, 
527; jMa Twan-lin's account of, 
209; Hyperboreans situated near, 



INDEX. 



753 



55 ; Mongolians near, 82, 87 ; writ- 
ing used by, 527 ; old records, 172 ; 
their small value, 527 ; tigers once 
found in, 681 ; Hwui Shan journey- 
ed through, 527; silk-worm eggs 
from Fu-sang taken to, 224, 238, 
525 ; introduction of Buddhism, 5, 
62 ; dresses of Buddhist priests, 
567 ; journeys from, 80 ; horses in- 
troduced, 100 ; route to Great Han, 
53 ; same title found in, as in Fu- 
sang, 209; knowledge of Fu-sang 
in, 12; a story told in, 250; not 
Fu-sang, 402 ; length of li or ri used 
in, 332; Corean fishing-boats, 515. 

Cornice, upon temple at Mictlan, 606. 

Corpse, wrappings of, in Mexico, 475. 

Cortez, expedition of, 169; entrance 
into Cholula, 154; welcomed by 
music, 423 ; visited by Cacumatzin, 
433, 617; use of name "Mexico" 
by, 372 ; presents sent by, to Charles 
V, 572; title bestowed on, 417; 
army of, fed on prickly-pears, 395. 

Cosmogonal traditions of Mexico, 158. 

Cosmogonies of America and Asia, 
143. 

Costa Rica, light-coloured inhabitants 
of, 506. 

Cotton, description of plant, 450; 
Chinese name of flower-bud, 415; 
cloth made by Aztecs, 517 ; armour 
made of quilted, 420, 618. 

Councils, for judging criminals, 435 ; 
of American Indians, 436. 

Courier, symbolism of dress of, 475. 

Courteous Vassals, country of, 664. 

Courtship, customs of, in Fu-sang, 
60, 290, 432; in America, 60; in 
Mexico, 99; among Apaches, 433; 
among Coco-Maricopas, 434. 

Cousin, Jean, of Dieppe, discovery of 
America by, 193. 

CowmuU, or Cophes River, 445, 

Coxcox, the Aztec Noah, 146. 

Cozumel, cross at, 550. 

Crabs, of Fu-sang, 225 ; of Japan, 84 ; 
of Nu-CHEU, 666. 

Crab-Barbarians. A^ee Ainos. 

Creamy dishes of Fu-sang, 395. 

Creeping Plants, mountain of, 644. 

Cremation in Mexico, 467. 

Criminals, punishment of, in Fu-sang, 
208, 274, 434, 457, 464 ; in Japan, 
632 ; in land of " ^larked Bodies," 
357; by Aztecs, 465; families in- 
cluded in, 64. 

Critica, a zodiacal sign, 150. 

Criticisms of Mexican historians, 621. 
. 4& 



Crocodile, resemblance of Cipactli to, 

145. 
Crook, General, statement of, 532. 
Crosier, carried by Buddhist lamas, 

569. 
Cross, veneration of, in Asia, 552 ; a 

sign of peace, 552 ; on robe of 

Quetzalcoatl, 542 ; in America, 549 ; 

as an ornament, 551 ; emblem of 

god of rain, 551 ; theory regarding 

existence of, 550. 
Cross-legged figure at Palenque, 127, 

199 ; and at Copan, 200. 
Crow with eight feet, 678. 
Cuaxolotl, Mexican story of, 614. 
Cuba, occupation of, 550. 
Cuepopan, a ward of Mexico, 370. 
Cuernavaca, horns found at, 09. 
Cukulcan, culture-hero of Yucatan, 

556, 557, 558. 
Culba, or 
Culhua, name of a gold-producing 

region, 370. 
Culiacan, worship of serpents in, 530. 
Cundinamarca, visited by Buddhists, 

63. 
Currant-bush sprouts, eaten by monk- 
eys, 511. 
Curtains, hung before doors, 518. 
Curved swords, in Mexico, 006. 
Cuttle-fish, Chinese, description of, 

654, 679. 
Cuzco, monuments of, 143, 
Cycles, characters used for, 209 ; 
names of years of, 41, 470 ; colours 

used to designate, 209; ten-year, 
60, 194 ; sixty-year, 64, 234 ; begin- 
ning of, 221 ; of Mexicans and 
Asiatics, 143 ; of Aztecs, 99. 
Cjniocephali, 244, 451, 517. 
Cj'prus, sculpture from, 129. 

D 

Ddgohas, of Ceylon, 602. 

JJairi, a Japanese ruler, 638 ; gar- 
ments worn by, only once, 617. 

Damitsi, expedilion of, against Jesse, 
627. 

Dancing, of Alaskans, etc., 347. 

Daourian region, tribes of, 187. 

Darien, punishment of crimmals in, 
437. 

Darkness, explorers stopped by, 37. 

Davenport Academy of National Sci- 
ences. 609, 610. 

Davs, divisions of, by Mexicans, 475, 
476. 

Day's journey, length of, 329, 834. 



754 



INDEX. 



Dead, a stone interred with the, 617 ; 
feast of the, 591. 

Death, ceremonies at, among Aztecs, 
466. 

Decadence of art, in America, 132. 

Decalogue of the Buddhists, 566. 

Decipherers, tricks of, 106. 

Deer, of Fu-sang, 286, 424 ; thought 
to have been milked, 395 ; supposed 
to be reindeer, 196 ; used as draught 
animals, 169 ; not reared by Japa- 
nese, 164; possessed by Americans, 
169 ; said to have been milked, 59 ; 
description of, 69 ; kept in Florida, 
431 ; tamed by Mexicans, 430 ; range 
of, 100 ; gait of, 452 ; horses so called, 
483 ; metaphoric use of the term, 
485 ; Island of, 75. See, also. Hinds. 

Deer-carts, said to be used in Fu-sang, 
480. 

Delos, Temple of, 129. 

Deluge, traditions regarding, 131 ; in 
time of Chuen-Hiu, 145 ; draining 
the waters of, 671. 

Demons, Chinese term for foreigners, 
81. 

Deneb Kaitos, a star, 145. 

Dene-dindiies, nursing of children by, 
501. 

Denmark, scholars of, 49. 

Details, necessity for examination of, 
843. 

Deucalions, celebrated among Scyth- 
ians, 146. 

Diva, introduction of the word into 
Mexico, 589. 

Devils, Chinese term for foreigners, 
88. 

Dhamma-pada, the Pali scriptures, 
458. 

Dharma, the Buddhist " Law," 458. 

Dictionaries, deficiencies of Chinese, 
257. 

Diificultiesof translating Chinese, 257. 

Difficulties, to be expected, 12, 342, 
454 ; which theory has least ? 358. 

Digamharas, or gymnosophists, 443. 

Diminishing River, 645. 

" Dissipation of Sorrows," 659, 661. 
See, also, Li-sao. 

Distances, not measured accurately, 
163, 186, 189, 243, 334 ; but given 
with approximate accuracy, 334. 

Distressed People's Country, 660. 

Ditches, in land of " Marked Bodies," 
322 ; about dwellings of Arikaras, 
354. 

"Divine Book," a possession of the 
Toltecs, 96. 



Djourdje, the Mantchoos, 187; or 
their ancestors, 45. 

Doctrine of Chances, application of, 
359. 

Dogs, in Fu-sang, 225, 239, 534; in 
Kamtchatka, 89 ; in America, 169, 
170 ; in Mexico, 147 ; used as 
draught animals, 32 ; and beasts of 
burden, 179, 481; a Chinese term 
for foreigners, 81 ; kingdom of, 226 ; 
guides to Hades, 590 ; change of 
Cantico into, 614 ; six-legged, 644 ; 
possibly seals, 679 ; sacrifice of, 
647. 

Dog's heads, men and monkeys with, 
312, 517. See, also, Cynoeephali. 

Dog-rib Indians, tattooing of, 346. 

Dome-shaped edifices, 602, 604. 

Don, the Eiver, 487. 

Doors, none used by American tribes, 
518. 

Doorways of California dwellings, 
518. 

Dragon, descriptions of, 450, 455 ; 
varieties of, 670 ; the Luminous, 
225, 239, 532 ; the cause of eclipses, 
72, 73, 157; figure of, at Uxmal, 
73 ; worship of, in Mexico, 157 ; 
gods with heads of, 647. 

Dragon-horses, description of, 450. 

Draught animals, none in America, 
170, 190, 196, 481. 

Dresden Manuscript, 167. 

Dress, of people of Fu-sang, 75 ; of 
Indians near Columbia River, 75 ; 
of Buddhist monks, 442. See, also, 
Garments. 

Driftwood, said to float to Han, 341. 

Drinkable water. See Shih River. 

Drought, omen of, 645, 646, 650, 655. 

Drums, of Mexicans, 421, 422. 

Drunkenness, punishment of, 437. 

Drya7ida cor data, or cor di folia, 176, 
195, 387. 

Ducks, in Fu-sang, 225, 534 ; in Mexi- 
co, 440. 

Dumont d'Urville, opinion of, 53. 

Durango, vines in, 415 ; bisons in, 
428. 

Durga, cruel rites of, 162. 

Dwarf, Vishnu as a, 152. 

Dwarfs, Land of. See Chu-ju. 

Dwellings, of Fu-sang, 207, 268, 418 ; 
of land of " Marked Bodies," 320, 
327; of Country of Women, 314, 
315; of the Chinese, 419; of the 
Ainos, 86; of the Ko-li-han, 83; 
of the Kamtchatkans, 88 ; of the 
Aleuts, 353 ; of the Haidah Indians, 



INDEX. 



755 



351; of Indians of Oregon and 
Washington Territory, 420 ; of Cali- 
fornians, 518 ; of Arikaras, 354 ; of 
New Mexicans, 168, 196 ; of Mexi- 
cans, 419 ; of newly married pairs 
in Yucatan, 434. 

Dyes, used by Mexicans, 471. 

Dyeing purple, a Phoenician art, 76. 

E 

Eagles said to produce dogs, 450. 

Earthquakes, destniction by, 615. _ 

Ease of voyage from Asia to America, 
171, 183. 

East, symbolized by the lotus, 58 ; and 
the banana, 58 ; the hieroglyph for, 
56 ; Fu-sang means the extreme, 
57 ; Quetzalcoatl said to have come 
from, 549 ; Tume said to have come 
from, 562. 

East and West, distance between, 
658. 

East India. See India. 

East Indians, garments of, 618. 

Eastern Barbarians, 83, 638, 658. 

Eastern Classic — first section, 644 ; 
second section, 647 ; third section, 
651 ; fourth section, 653. 

Eastern Mountains, Classic of, 644. 

Eastern Ocean, a term for the Pacific, 
82. 

Eastern Pass, Mountain of the, 663, 
680. 

Eastern Sea, 26, 661 ; fish of, 645 ; ex- 
pedition in, 657. 

Eastern Shi Mountain, 654. 

Eastern Yoh Mountain, 646. 

Ecacozeatl, a Mexican flower, 474. 

Ecapatli, the Laurus Indica, 509. 

Eclipses, caused by a dragon, 72, 157. 

Ecliptic, divisions of, 144, 153. 

Eggs of silk-worms of Fu-sang, 224, 
238, 525. 

Egypt, symbolized by the lotus, 57 ; 
veneration of cross in, 552; idols 
of, 71 ; divisions of zodiac in, 144 ; 
communication with Hindostan, 
144 ; analogies of art of, to that of 
America, 200 ; winged globes of, 
found in America, 100; resem- 
blance of pyramids of, to those of 
America, 96 ; difEerenees, 600. 

d'Eichthal, " Study " of, 119 ; followed 
de Paravey, 67. 

Eight vessels, used to hold Buddha's 
ashes, 96. 

Eight-footed crow, 678. 

Eight-headed serpent, 678. 



Eitel's identification of the fu-sang 
tree, 401. 

Elia pdnika, definition of, 441. 

Eldest Child Mountain, 652. 

Elements, the five, of the Chinese, 
234. 

Elephant, a symbol of Buddha, 608 ; 
pictured on a tablet, 610 ; tradition 
of, 61 1 ; possible recent existence in 
America, 608, 611. 

Elephant's head, at Palenque, 607, 
608. 

Elephant-mound of Wisconsin, 610. 

Elephant-pipes, discovery of, 610. 

Elephant's trunk, in Yucatan, 200, 
607. 

Ellen's Meropide, 55. 

Elks, Cffisar's account of, 452 ; called 
cattle, 426, 483; used as draught 
animals, 169 ; animals resembling, 
651. 

El-Kurud, stars so called, 147. 

Ellora, figure of Buddha at, 135. 

Eloeococca verrucosa, 176, 387. 

Eloquent Nation, Chinese account of, 
495. ■ 

Embassies to China, from Japan, 84, 
85, 178, 624, 625, 626, 627, 633, 635; 
from Corea, 527, 630; from Ceylon, 
446; from Kolihan, 83; from Co- 
chin-China, 114; from Pacific isl- 
ands, 83 ; from Kao-li, 638 ; from 
LiEU-KUEi, 36, 90 ; from Great Han 
of the North, 315, 346 ; from Fu- 
sang, 179, 331, 222, 223, 519. 

Endogenous plants, sprouts of, 389. 

England, Chinese name for, 400 ; 
shipwrecked Japanese sent to, 102. 

Epiceriniens, neighbours of the Hu- 
rons, 31. 

Equus fraternus, 482. 

Erect attitude of inhabitants of Coun- 
try of Women, 505. 

Erigone, her place in the zodiac, 150. 

Erikson, Leif, discovery of America 
by, 193. 

Errors, in translating from Chinese, 
257; origin of, in account of Fu- 
sang, 449. 

Espadarte, or narwhal, 145. 

Esquimaux, in Aleutian Islands, 344; 
in Alaska, 30; allied to Ainos, 84; 
and Tartars, 81 ; said to have lived 
in Vinland, 453 ; meaning of name, 
88 ; characteristics of, 183 ; religion 
of, 6 ; peaceful nature of, 357 ; hos- 
pitality of, 350; tattooing of, 346; 
dancing of, 347 ; doorways of, 518 ; 
practice of nursing children, 501 ; 



756 



INDEX. 



crossing between Asia and America, 

183. 
Estaflate, or Mexican absinthe, 508. 
Estufas, description, 435 ; and uses of, 

436. 
Eternity, the Land of, 625. 
Ethiopia, communication of, with 

Egypt, 144. 
Ethnography of Foreign Nations, 16. 
Ethnology, Chinese system of, 80. 
Etruria and Mexico, same fables in, 

155. 
Europe, visited by Buddhists, 5 ; Chi- 
nese not acquainted with, 180; 

Quetzalcoatl not from, 143. 
Europeans, ignorant of Asia and 

Africa, 454. 
Euskarian language, 366. 
Explorations by the Arabs, 37. 
Explorers, errors of, 450, 483, 708. 

F 

Fables, told only of unknown lands, 
121, 163; truth contained in, 105, 
336; related by Tacitus, 56; by 
early explorers, 94, 450, 708 ; same 
in Asia and America, 155 ; destruc- 
tion of universe, 615; regarding 
Vishnu, 152 ; Alexander and Char- 
lemagne, 95 ; fiying-raen, 535 ; sala- 
manders, 532 ; in Mexico, 490 ; in 
Shan Hai King, 181 ; regarding 
tree of stone, 416 ; regarding Han, 
341 ; regarding Fu-sang, 48, 56, 
163, 174, 224, 243; and the fu- 
sang tree, 219 ; origin of, 218 ; 
none in Hwui SuXn's account, 224. 

Fabulous Encyclopa?dia, 674. 

Fa Hian, journey of, to India, 10; 
mistakes made by, 450 ; companions 
of, 444. 

Fah, meaning of, 457. 

Fah Hill, 656. 

Fairies of the Chinese, 401. 

Fairy Hills, the Three, 241. 

Fairy-land, in the Kwun-lun Mount- 
ains, 253 ; a tree of stone in, 254. 
See, also, P'Ang-lai and Lang 
Yuen. 

Fa-kheu King, a Chinese translation, 
458. 

Fa-kiai-ngan-li-tu, a Chinese book, 
94. 

" Familiar Discourses " of Confucius, 
672. 

Family of criminals punished, 64, 
464. 

Fan River, 653. 



Fan-lis, the way of, 666. 

Fan-t'iao Mountain, 645. 

F'ang-chang, an island of the genii, 
251. 

Fasting, in Fu-sang, 292 ; and Mexi- 
co, 466, 581 ; by Buddhist monks, 
441 ; punishment for not, 614. 

Feathers, snow described as, 450. 

Feather-work, temple adorned with, 
616. 

Pei, a poisonous insect, 656. 

Females, Island of, 488. 

Females, excess of, born in Japan, 
632. 

Festivals, at Norton Sound, 347 ; of 
Peruvians, 210. 

Fiak-sai. See Pe-tsi. 

Fiber of agave, value of, 98, 521 ; 
woven into brocade, 236. 

Fig, Chinese name for, 415. See, also, 
Bread-fruit tree and Prickly-pear. 

Finns, influenced by Buddhism, 5. 

Fir-tree, Aztec name for, 219. 

Fira-kana, invention of, 637. 

Fire, destruction of mankind by, 615 ; 
Island, trees and rats, 225, 530. 

Fire-drills, representations of, 551. 

Fish with ten bodies, 679. 

Fish-eaters, or Esquimaux. 68. 

Fish-skins, tribes clothed in, 90. 

Fishing-boats, Corean, 515. 

Fitaka no kisi, mission of, 627. 

Five ages, accounts of, 154, 158., 

Flora, of Asia and America connect- 
ed. 97. 

Florida, called " Great Ireland," 92 ; 
woman from, met in Tartary, 35 ; 
deer kept in, 431. 

Flowers offered to Buddha, 133 ; to 
the gods, 598; the Place of the 
House of, 598. 

Flowing-stream, Islands of the, 688. 

Flutes of Mexicans, 422. 

Flying-people, traditions of, 535 ; 
origin of stones of, 514. 

Fo, Chinese name of Buddha, 28, 77, 
123, 595. 

Fo-Ki6-si, the Temple of the Recep- 
tion of the Law, 629. 

Fomahaud, name of a star, 145. 

Fong-hoang, varieties of, 670. 

Food, derived from century-plants, 
98, 384 ; prepared by Alaskans for 
travelers, 348, 350. 

Foot-prints, worship of, 72, 553, 560, 
563. 

Forehead, lines tattooed upon, 346. 

Foreign Range, 645. 

Forest of agaves. 384. 



INDEX. 



757 



Formosa, Chinese colonies in, 84. 

Fort Simpson, Chimsean Indians at, 
352. 

Fortifications, in America, 198 ; none 
in Alaska or the Aleutian Islands, 
351 ; in Mexico or Central Ameri- 
ca, 420. 

Foucaux, M., note by, 183. 

Fountain of wine, 235, 239. 

Four ages, Hindoo account of, 154, 
158, 615 ; Aztec account of, 151, 158. 

Fourth day, consummation of mar- 
riage postponed to, 619. 

Fou-so, Japanese pronunciation of 
Fu-SANG, which see. 

Foxes with nine tails, 651, 657, 658, 
664. 

Fox Islanders, tattooing of, 346 ; hos- 
pitality of, 350. 

France, Chinese transcription of, 404. 

Franck, M., drawings of, 573. 

Frontispiece, reference to, 361. 

Fruits offered to Buddha, 133; and 
to the gods, 598. 

Fu, its pronunciation and meaning, 
408. 

Fu Mountain, 652. 

Fu-tree, or fu-sang tree, 182, 653, 
666. 

Fu-Hi, spirits of, reign of, 671. 

Fu-Li Mountain, 650. 

Fu-LiN, Chinese term for the west, 57. 

Fu-NAN, Chinese term for the south, 
57. 

Fu-SANG, Chinese characters for, 399 ; 
Fu-su sometimes used for, 400 ; 
original sound, 405 ; possibly a 
transcription of pisanp, 405, 642 ; 
and used for " Mexico," 406 : mean- 
ing of term, 46, 56, 57, 219. 399 ; 
used for the extreme east, 57, 76 ; 
derived its name from a plant or 
tree, 94. 173 ; description of, 26, 
40, 260, 262, 264 ; its situation, 203, 
360, 653, 658 ; its distance and di- 
rection from China, 105, 163, 192, 
228, 329, 639 ; route to. 360, 447 ; 
distance from Great Han, 19 ; clew 
to location of, 300, 681 ; in same 
direction as HiA-i, 233 ; in Eastern 
Asia, 235, 359 ; on western side of 
the Pacific, 242 ; one of the Kurile 
Islands, 243; Saghalien, 179, 242; 
in Philippine Islands, 682; in Ja- 
pan, 46, 174, 191 ; not in Japan, 58, 
108, 164, 178, 333, 402, 639, 641, 
685; term applied to Japan, 46, 
242, 249 ; never applied to Japan, 
109 ; east of Japan, 227, 242, 639 ; 



place in Chinese maps, 50, 94 ; in 
America, 118, 140, 336; not in 
America, 189, 191 ; included South 
America, 59 ; not in South Ameri- 
ca, 194 ; in Alaska, 189 ; in Ore- 
gon, 55, 163 ; or California, 20, 163 ; 
near San Francisco, 68, 177 ; not 
New Mexico, Arizona, or Califor- 
nia, 196; in Mexico, 12, 95. 399; 
not in Mexico, 189 ; the place of 
sunrise, 252, 342 ; not a sun-myth, 
226, 341 ; used as name of Fairy- 
land, 240 ; compared to Laputa, 
243 ; its great size, 52, 63, 220, 534, 
640; a small island, 243; position 
can not be determined, 242; two 
countries so called, 406, 409 ; early 
knowledge of, by Chinese, 12, 207, 
218, 221, 642 ; and by Greeks, 56 ; 
ToNG Fang-so's account of, 219 ; 
Kiu-yuen's reference to, 218 ; Yu 
Kie's account of, 224, 519 ; visited 
only once, 94; how the account 
reached us, 448 ; no further infor- 
mation regarding, 233, 246 ; varia- 
tions in texts regarding, 709 ; errors 
made in copying, 709 ; knowledge 
of, preserved in China, 254 ; ac- 
counts of, have a common origin, 
107; analogy between, and Great 
Han, 216; called the Vinland of 
Asiatic explorers, 168 ; figure of a 
native of, 58, 69, 75 ; statue of a 
native of, 254; stanza regarding 
him, 254 ; peculiarities of, 418 ; 
marvels contained in, 48 ; dwell- 
ings in, 418 ; prisons of, 457 ; pun- 
ishment of crime in, 435, 464 ; slave- 
children, 457, 462 ; animals, 239, 
534 ; deer, 424 ; horse-carts, 480 ; 
oxen, 425 ; horns, 424 ; silk-worms, 
223, 524 ; metals and markets, 431 ; 
mirrors, 522 ; liquor, 397 ; mourn- 
ing, 466 ; fasting, 466 ; courtship, 
432 ; titles of noblemen, 411, 413; 
and of king, 409 ; delay after coro- 
nation, 466 ; colour of his garments, 
99, 470 ; music attending him, 421 ; 
his palace, 224, 528 ; former igno- 
rance of people of, 456 ; introduc- 
tion of Buddhism, 126 ; Asiatic civ- 
ilization, 456, 470 ; East Indian 
arts, 76 ; Chinese customs. 65, 212, 
234; an envoy from, 179, 221, 519; 
fables regarding, 56, 163 ; not wor- 
thy of credit, 194 ; account should 
be consistently explained, 342 ; re- 
capitulation of arguments regard- 
ing, 684. 



758 



INDEX. 



Fu-sang, Notices of, by Professor S. 
Wells Williams, 200. 

Fu-sang, or, Who Discovered Ameri- 
ca? 174. 

Fusang, Where was ? 161. 

Fu-SANG tree, meaning of the name, 
236; descriptions of, 264, 382; in 
the Shan Mai King, 182, 249; in 
the Shih Chau Ki, 236 ; by Tong 
Fang-so, 219 ; reference to it by 
St; Ki-yO, 243 ; Chinese traditions, 
399; called Joh-muh, 400; Nm, 
400 ; or " a great cloud of blos- 
soms," 401 ; leaves of, variations in 
texts regarding, 386, 389 ; its red 
pears, 211, 395, 449 ; its silk and 
silk-worms, 223, 224, 238, 520; in 
island of Ki-shu, 182 ; east of the 
KwuN-LUN Mountains, 252 ; its pet- 
rified wood, 249 ; connection of its 
name with that of the country, 
383; attempts to identify it, 33; 
inability to do so, 117, 194. 195 ; its 
possible extinction, 97; identified 
as the Hibiscus rosa Sineiisis, 40, 
57, 175, 249; not the hibiscus, 117, 
195 ; identified as the mulberry, or 
Morns papyrifera, 190 ; not the 
mulberry, 164 ; the Broussonetia 
papyrifera, 177, 235 ; not the Brous- 
sonetia, 117; the prickly-poppy, 
64 ; no such tree in America, 187 ; 
the pisang, banana, or plantain, 58, 
682 ; the agave, aloe, maguey, or 
eentuiy-plant, 383 ; or possibly in- 
tended to include the cacti and 
agaves, 394 ; not the agave, 174, 
175,194, 195; Eitel's definition, 401. 

Fu-su, a variant of Pu-sang, 400. 

Ffr-YU, Chinese term for the north, 57. 

FuH-KiEN, marriage festivities in, 477. 

Fun River, 653. 

Fung-kao, mountain in, 646. 

FuNG-SHWiN, the source of the, 253. 

Fylfot, a species of cross, 552. 

G 

Gage, welcomed by music, 424. 
Gallatin, researches of, 81. 
Galoches. See Koljushes. 
Gama, Don Jean de. Island discovered 

by, 22. 
Games played in Mexico and India, 

620. 
Gammadion, a species of cross, 552. 
Ganesa, head-dress of, 135 ; figure of, 

612. 
Ganges, Chinese transcription of, 414. 



Gang-ko-la, Chinese name of the 
Angara, 24. 

Gaps in Japanese history. 623. 

Garments, prescribed by Buddha, 554 ; 
of Buddhist priests, 567; priests 
of Burmah, 585 ; Updsakas, 561 ; 
Mexican priests, 580 ; priests of 
Salvador, 472 ; of Chinese emperor, 
471 ; of king of Fu-sang, 282, 470 ; 
of Montezuma, 472 ; not worn twice, 
617; placed on images of the dead, 
467; on corpses, 475; worn by 
Quetzalcoatl, 542; of Aztecs, 617; 
of East Indians, 617 ; of Japanese, 
631 ; made of paper, 638 ; those of 
bride and groom tied together, 480, 
619. 

Garnets, found in Alaska, 356. 

Gass, Rev. J., explorations of, 610. 

Gaubil, Pere, letter by, 14, 51, 99, 
180; identification of Lieu-kuei 
by, 52 ; denies that Fu-sang was in 
America, 63. 

Gautama, family name of Buddha, 2 ; 
corruptions of, 558, 561. 

Geese, worshiped in China, 478 ; kept 
by Mexicans, 430. 

Gelius, his account of Pygmies, 494. 

Gems used as standard of value, 322, 
356 ; worked by Aztecs, 573. 

Genealogy of Asiatic nations, 82. 

Generations, the seven, definition of, 
464. 

Genii, who ruled the earth, 680 ; Isl- 
ands of, 251 ; country inhabited by, 
488 ; mentioned in Chinese account, 
42. 

Geographical Annual, article from, 16. 

Geographical relations between Asia 
and America, 119. 

Geography, importance of study of, 
191 ; Chinese system of, 80, 242 ; of 
Tu-YU, 674. 

Geoutam, Thibetan term for Gau- 
tama, 558. 

German races, relationship between, 
82. 

Germania. See Tacitus. 

Gestation, length of, in Country of 
Women, 304 ; in monkeys, 498, 499. 

Ghiliaks, on Asiatic coast, 187; their 
Village of the Tower, 138. 

Ghi-wa, a virgin, 163, 250. 

Ghi-wa-JcoJcf, an eastern land, 163,250. 

Ghizneh, said to be Ki-pin, 445. 

Ghosts, the feast of the, 591. 

Giants, Chinese accounts of, 662 ; in 
Patagonia, 455 ; Vishnii's visit to, 
152 ; among Japanese rulers, 624. 



INDEX. 



Y59 



Gibraltar, food of monkeys of, 510. 

Gifts, Chinese custom regarding, 80. 

Gila River, 428; country near, 62; 
bisons not found near, 427 ; civiliza- 
tion of tribes near, 168 ; Buddhist 
monks near, 143 ; Aztec monu- 
ments near, 149; defensive works 
near, 198. 

Glass, Chinese term for, 355 ; Chmese 
long unacquainted with, 524. 

Gloomy Sea, a name of the Atlantic, 

Go-betweens, or marriage - brokers, 

476, 479. 
Gobi, desert of, 44, 648. 
Godam, the Mongolian term for Gau- 
tama, 558. „ ^ ^ , 
Godron, Dr. A., article by, 16, 113, 194. 
Gods, mirrors held by, 614; of East- 
ern Mountains, 647; with birds 
bodies, 661, 665 ; with beasts' bod- 
ies, 666; with tiger's body— see 
T'lEN-wu ; with sheep's horns, 653 ; 
of Thunder, 668. 
Gold, in Fu-sang, Chinese text regard- 
ing, 288 ; not valued, 172, 431 ; used 
merely as an ornament, 351 ; valued 
by Japanese, 164; not separated 
from sand, 637; discovery of, in 
Japan, 636, 640 ; its first use, 629 ; 
used by Aztecs, 431 ; but not as 
money, 98 ; weight of a load of, 417. 
Golden Age, merely a popular fancy, 

198. 
Goldsmiths of Mexico, 572. 
Gomal River, 445. 

Gon9alves, his definition of the fu- 
sang tree, 64. 
Gorgons, description of, by Lily, 454. 
Gotama. See Gautama, and Buddha. 
Grammar of the Chinese Language,17. 
Grammatical peculiarities of several 

languages, 111. 
Grand Khan, court of, 159. 
Grand View, Iowa, elephant - pipes 

found near, 610. 
Grapes, characters used by Chinese 
for, 211; found in America, 110; 
in Mexico, 415 ; but little used, 415. 
See, also, Vines. 
Grasshoppers, damage done by, 649. 
Graves, pyramids used for, 599, 601. 
Gray, Professor Asa, statements of, 

401, 508. 
Great, tlie word prefixed to titles, 412. 
Great Annals of China, 39, 193, 260. 
Great Britain, Chinese name for, 406, 
Great Canon beyond the Eastern Sea, 
661. 



Great Eastern Waste, Classic of the, 

661. 
Great Han. See Han, Great. 
Great Island, a portion of America, 

92 ; colonists of, 199. 
Great Men's Country, 657, 662. 
Great Men's Market, and Mansion,663. 
Great Spirit, worshiped by American 

tribes, 157, 
Grecian art, analogies to American 

art, 200, 
Greece, should not be sought in 

America, 201, 
Greeks, thought to have colonized 
Asia, 55; their knowledge of Fu- 
sang, 56 ; four ages of, 158. 
Green and blue confounded, 209, 471, 

616. 
Green Hills Country, 657, 664. 
Green- jade-stone Mountain, 650. 
Green Mounds, Region of, 644. 
Green Shepherds' Plains, 643, 
Greenland, reached from Iceland, 37. 
Greenlanders, connected with Alas- 
kans, 344, 
Grellon, Pere, travels of, 35, 
Grijalva, named Yucatan "New 

Spain," 97 ; expedition of, 550. 
Ground, Buddhist priests sit upon, 

44:3. , „„ 

Gualle, FranQois, prediction by, 29. 
Guanacos, found in Florida, 431. 
Guarani language, peculiarities of, 

111. 
Guaranis, traditions of, 562, 563. 
Guatemala, derivation of the nam^, 
588; Aztec place-names in, 367; 
Aztec language spoken in, 366 ; 
traditions of, 558, 608; calendar, 
501 ; tame deer kept in, 431 ; king 
of, accompanied by music, 423; 
monuments of, 56 ; analogy of civil- 
ization with that of Mexico, 362. 
Ouatimo^in, a Mexican high-priest, 

588 
Guatiisos, a tribe of Costa Rica, 506. 
Guaxaca, pearl-fishing near, 76; name 

contains name " Sakya." 77. 
Guayra, road to, from Brazil, 563. 
Guetzlaff, Carl, attempts to visit Ja- 
pan, 102. 
Guignes, M. Jos. de, references to, 
50, 105 ; his studies, 120 ; his " His- 
tory of the Huns," 13; map fur- 
nished by, 121 ; article by, 18 ; 
translation of account of Fu-sang, 
26, 263; of Country of Women, 
303 ; of the land of " Marked Bod- 
ies," 317 ; of Great Han, 325 ; title 



760 



INDEX. 



of his article incorrect, 39, 119; 
gave first information of the Chi- 
nese account, 13, 204 ; quoted from, 
by Buache and others, 14; justice 
rendered to, 64 ; merit of his works, 
137, 185; had best of the argument, 
193. 

Gulf-stream of the Pacific, would 
carry Chinese to Mexico, 167. See, 
also, Kuro-siwo. 

Gulliver, threads by which bound, 
709. 

Gulls, eaten, 660. 

Guzman, Nuiio de, expedition of, 491, 
530. 

Gymnosophists, or digamharas, 443. 

Gypsum, used for window-glass, 529. 

H 

Haas, P., elephant-pipes found on 
farm of, 610. 

Hades, the Mexican, 460, 590. 

Hai, king, adventures of, 665. 

Haidah Indians, 345, 351. 

Hair, of Aztec priests, 580 ; of Bud- 
dhist priests, 567; of inhabitants 
of the Country of "Women, 106, 
304 ; of Hapales, 503 ; of Camaxtli, 
596. 

Hairy People, or Ainos, 21, 84, 186, 
660, 681. 

Hakas, ancestors of the Kirghis, 346. 

Hall, Prof. Asaph, discovery of, 343. 

Hammocks, made from agave fiber, 
386. 

Han, meaning of the character, 337, 
338 ; the river, 339 ; the duke, 339 ; 
the dynasty, 30, 51, 673 ; the state, 
164, 165 ; China so called, 338 ; 
description of the three, 165 ; fable 
regarding, 341 ; dialect, 639. 

Han, Great, meaning of the name, 35, 
93, 214, 315. 346, 337, 338, 340 ; ac- 
count of, 301, 334 ; Hwui Shan its 
author, 301 ; route to, 35, 44, 53, 65, 
137, 360; its distance from WXn 
ShXn, or the land of "Marked 
Bodies," 19, 338, 336; from Japan, 
639; its location, 33, 163; interest 
therein, 185 ; nearer to Japan than 
to Fu-sang, 333; no such country 
between Japan and China, 109 ; no 
country mentioned between it and 
Fu-sang, 188; situated on north- 
eastern coast of Asia, 137 ; in Sibe- 
ria, 33, 178; near mouth of Amoor 
River, 137, 186, 188; in Saghalien, 
44, 45, 186 ; in Japan, 165 ; in Kam- 



tchatka, 20, 25, 53; not in Kam- 
tchatka, 45, 207, 238 ; in Alaska, 93, 
336 ; a continent, 307 ; examination 
of its customs, 343 ; their analogy 
with those of Fu-sang, 316; two 
countries bearing this name, 315, 
246, 359. 

Han, of the North, Great, account of, 
215. 

Han, of the East, Great, account of, 
215 ; not in Asia, 216 ; peaceful 
character of its people, 216. 

Han-hai, a sea and island near Corea, 
634. 

Han-lin, the Imperial Academy, 676. 

Hands, prints of, 614 ; of idols, 614. 

Han-kow, custom of shopkeepers of, 
340. 

Hanuman, worship of in India, 135, 
147, 495. 

Hag Mountain, 653. 

Hapale, a species of monkey, 497, 
503, 506. 

Hardy, unprejudiced opinion of, 603. 

Hares, of Fu-sang, 339 ; of Mexico, 
430 ; in the disk of the moon, 147. 

Hats, made by Aleuts, 353 ; not worn 
by American tribes, 568. 

Hawaii, Chinese and Japanese in, 100; 
resemblance of natives to Asiatics, 
103. 

Hawaiian Spectator, quotations from, 
101. 

Hawks's translation of Riviero, 162. 

Head-dresses, of Chinese and Mexi- 
cans, 156; of East Indian idols, 135; 
of Buddhist priests, 567 ; of an ele- 
phant's head, 607. 

Hedges, of century-plants, 386, 400. 

Hellwald, M. F. de, remarks of, 203. 

Hens, turkeys so called, 115. 

Herbal of Chin-nong, 674. 

Herb-eaters, or Quaqtmcuiliin, 575. 

Herodotus, reference to, 55 ; account 
of the Argippeans, 59; marvelous 
tales of, 450. 

d'Hervey de Saint-Denys, M. le Mar- 
quis, notes of, 304 ; his translation 
literal, 305; appendix by, 317; cor- 
rection of error by, 233 : his trans- 
lation of the account of Fu-sang, 
363; of the Countrv of Women, 
303 ; of the land of " Marked Bod- 
ies," 317; of Great Han, 335. 

Heu-tsi, said to be Chinese name of 
Shem, 73. 

Hi, a Chinese prince, 666. 

HiA-CHEU Island, 664. 

Hia-i, Fu-sang near, 333. See, also. 



INDEX. 



761 



Ainos, Crab-Barbarians, and Hairy 
People. 

HtANG, confusion of, with Ting, 503. 

Hiang-hioung, language of the Oto- 
mis, 111. 

HiANG-YUAN-szu, Temple of, 628. 

HiAO King, or Book of Filial Piety, 
673. 

HiAo LiNG-Ti, a Chinese emperor, 
633. 

HiAo Wu-Ti, a Chinese emperor, 43, 
108, 672. 

Hiaqui, a Mexican river, 487. 

Hibiscus, brought from Persia, 57; 
confounded with mulberry, 46, 110; 
not the fu-sang tree, 117. 

Hibiscus rosa Sinensis, AQ, 176, 195; 
thought to be the fu-sang tree, 57, 
175, 190, 349. 

Hibiscus Syriacus, 175, 195. 

Hie-sos, the Egyptian Shepherd Kings, 
60. 

HiEH-TstJ, a species of animal, 654. 

Hieroglyphic writing, of Asia, 143 ; 
and America, 143, 156; of the Az- 
tecs, 144, 145, 363, 536 ; derived from 
the Toltecs, 365 ; nearly all de- 
stroyed, 364 ; on image of Quetzal- 
coatl, 596. 

Hi-Ho, an astronomer, 250 ; a virgin, 
250; land of, 250. 

Hills, islands so called, 644. 

Hindoos, zodiac of, 144 ; Nakchatras 
or Lunar Houses of, 144, 149, 150 ; 
divisions of the day, 475 ; four ages 
of, 158, 615; legend of, 152; arts, 
analogies in to those of America, 
200; altars. 133; marriage ceremo- 
nies, 619 ; backgammon, 620. 

Hindostan, communication with Eu- 
rope, 144; cornices upon temples 
of, 606; prints of the hand in, 614. 

Hinds, of Fu-sang, 58, 69 ; of Ameri- 
ca, 59, 76. See, also. Deer. 

Hipparion, an equine genus, 483. 

Historiographers, Chinese, 11. 

History of the Eastern Barbarians, 
658. 

History of the Gods and of Prodigies, 
671. 

History of the South, 39, 46, 183, 260, 
357. See, also, Nan-sse. 

HiuEN-CHONG, aBuddhist devotee, 635. 

Hiuen-ts'ang, travels of, 10, 125, 126, 
257, 340, 488. 

Ho, a measure of capacity, 210. 

Ho, or Ho-koue, a name of Japan, 

250. 
Ho-Mou, or trees of fire, 530. 



Ho-POH, adventures of, 665. 

Ho-SHANG, Chinese Buddhist priests, 
561. 

Ho-t'ao, the Country of the Ordos, 
44. 

Ho-TCHEOU, the Island of Fire, 530. 

Ho-TCHiN, a Lord of the Liang dy- 
nasty, 233. 

Ho-Tu's " Album of Gems," 663. 

HoANG-HO, cities upon, 44. 

HoEi-KE, Tartarian tribes, 33, 44. 

HoEi-SHiN. See Hwui ShIn. 

Hoffman, translation by, 86. 

HoH-HU Mountain, 063. 

HoH-MiNG-TsuN-TsiH Mountain, 667. 

HoH-Yt;, a species of animal, 655. 

HoK-KEEN, adobe walls in, 419. 

Hollanders, the discoverers of Jesso, 
81. 

Hondius, map in account of, 370. 

Honey, extracted from century-plant, 
386 ; not to be eaten after mid-day, 
442. 

Honolulu, shipwrecked Japanese in, 
101. 

Horary cycle of the Chinese, 523. 

Horns, in Fu-sang, 210, 284, 424; in 
Mexico, 69, 100, 210 ; of American 
animals, 100 ; of Rocky Mountain 
sheep, 450 ; of bison, 428 ; of extinct 
bison, 428 ; as instruments of mu- 
sic, 421, 422; as vessels, 430; gods 
with, 653. 

Horn-bill, described as bird with two 
heads, 680. 

Horses, of Fu-sang, 32, 225, 239, 534; 
possibly some other animal, 33, 59, 
100, 162, 483; of China, 484; of 
Tartary, 32; of Great Han of the 
North, 215, 246 ; limits of native 
country of, 100 ; not found in some 
parts of Siberia, 32 ; method of tam- 
ing, 654 ; not raised in Japan, 178 ; 
631, 640; introduced into Japan, 
100, 627; used as post-horses, 626; 
mvth of creation of, 47 ; none in 
America, 47, 99, 175; bones of in 
America, 203, 482; may have sur- 
vived in America, 59, 70, 162, 482 ; 
especially in South America, 483 ; 
said to have existed in Newfound- 
land, 483 ; brought to America from 
Europe, 43, 115, 196, 481; called 
" tapirs " and " deer," 483 ; use of 
in Apache courtship, 433. 

Horse-carts of Fu-sang. 286. 480. 

Horse-deer, elks so called by Spaniards, 
116. 

Horus, an Egyptian god, 58, 73. 



762 



INDEX. 



Hospitality, of people of land of 
"Marked Bodies," 320; of Aleu- 
tians, 350 ; of American tribes, 348. 

Hot-springs, in Nicaragua, 534 ; Val- 
ley of. See Tang-ku. 

Hu Marsh, 651. 

Hu River, 644. 

Hu-KUANG, a Chinese district, 206. 

Hu-PE, a Chinese province, 40. 

Hu-SHE Mountain, 652. 

Huamanga, pyramids in, 565. 

Huatamo, a town in Miehoacan, 588. 

Huatulco, appearance of Wixipeco- 
cha at, 539. 

Huazamala, a town in Jalisco, 588. 

Huazontlan, a Mexican town, 541. 

Hudson's Bay, cattle found near, 33 ; 
customs of tribes near, 34, 75. 

Hudson's Bay Company, 102. 

Huematzin, a Toltec astronomer, 559. 

HuEN People, 667. 

Huetlapan, home of the Toltecs, 864. 

Huey-Comitl, a Mexican hero, 566. 

Hueya, an Aztec verb, 508. 

Huh, a measure of capacity, 210, 425. 

HuiEN-HiAo, a Chinese zodiacal sign, 
145. 

Huilcas, a Peruvian tribe, 565. 

Hwitl, the termination dropped, 378. 

Huitzillan, temple at, 380. 

Huitzilopochtli, meaning of the name, 
379 ; conception of, 97, 614 ; the god 
of war, 373, 374; bloody rites of, 
575 ; feast in honor of, 526 ; a drag- 
on on his escutcheon, 533 ; son of 
the god of plants, 380 ; the god of 
vegetation, 380 ; worshiped in green 
garments, 472 ; a deification of the 
century-plant, 379 ; names given to, 
381. 

Huitztli, or uitztli, fresh pulque, 380. 

Human sacrifices in Mexico, 32. 

Humboldt, Alex, von, believed Ameri- 
can tribes came from Asia, 49 ; in- 
fluenced by Pere Gaubil, 51, 181 ; 
views as to connection of Asiatic 
and American civilizations, 63 ; quo- 
tations from, 142. 

Humming-birds, said to die and re- 
vive, 454. 

HuNG-HUNG, land of, 657. 

HuNG-Li-Ti Hill, 667. 

Hungarian verbs, conjugation of. 111. 

Huns, History of the, 13. 

Hurakan, worship of, 551. 

Hurons, reference to, by Home, 31 ; 
a woman of, found in Tartary, 35. 

Husbands, of women of the Country 
of Women, 308; of the so-called 



Amazons, 504; serpents taken as, 
529. 

Huttman, Mr., sec'y of Asiatic Soc, 
51, 67. 

Hvitramannalandy'WhitQM^en^shwa.di, 
199. 

HwA-KiAU, or marriage sedan, 477. 

HwAH-fish, 655. 

HwAi-NAN-TSz', a Chinese philosopher, 
47, 226, 653, 659. 

HwAi Seng, journey of, to India, 10. 

HwAN River, 646. 

HwANG-Ti, a Chinese emperor, 221, 
250, 665, 671. 

HwoH-SHi, or 

HwoH-TUNG, tadpoles, 644. 

Hwui, meaning of, 443 ; its common 
occurrence, 443. 

Hwui ShXn (Hoei Shin, or Hwui- 
shin), meaning of name, 205; na- 
tionality of, 444; our imperfect 
knowledge of, 710 ; one of a party 
of five, 233, 237; not a native of 
Fu-sang, 223 ; not a native of China, 
206 ; but a native of Cophene, 709 ; 
probably understood Chinese but 
imperfectly, 448, 709 ; Yu Kie's mis- 
understanding of, 521, 525 ; journey 
through Corea, 527; preservation 
of his story, 222 ; the Chinese text, 
262; variations in different texts, 
261 ; circumstances under which the 
account was given, 221, 439 ; ques- 
tioned by representative of the em- 
peror, 420; author of the account 
of the Country of Women, 244 ; as 
well as that of "Marked Bodies," 
and Great Han, 301 ; proof that he 
had visited some unknown land, 
641, 685; evidence of honesty of, 
685 ; interest excited by his story, 
11 ; convinced Chinese emperor and 
scholars, 12 ; truths told by, 12, 358, 
686 ; difference between his account 
and other tales of Fu-sang, 217 ; no 
fables told by, 224 ; courage of, 334 ; 
lack of care in examining his story, 
493 ; should not be assumed to be 
dishonest, 335 ; allowances to be 
made for, 450, 455, 708 ; principle 
adopted in translating his story, 
255, 355 ; used li in its usual mean- 
ing, 333 ; reasonably accurate in his 
estimates, 334 ; did not describe 
countries on the route, 234; may 
not have visited Fu-sang, 140 ; did 
not visit Country of Women, 213 ; 
repeated stories of Chinese sailors, 
202 ; rejection of his story, 175, 194, 



INDEX. 



763 



203, 233, 300 ; guided by old tradi- 
tions, 220; not first discoverer of 
Pu-sang, 204, 207 ; the envoy from 
Fu-sang, 223, 237, 520; traditions 
in Mexico of his visit, 706; his 
name and title preserved as Wixi- 
pecocha, 540 ; his story should lead 
to one of three conclusions, 341 ; 
■which is attended with fewest diffi- 
culties? 342. 

Hyacinth, Father, verdict of, 175. 

Hyperboreans, country of, 55, 63. 

Hypochlorite, found in Alaska, 356. 



I, the prince named, 659. 

I-HAN, a Chinese astronomer, 86. 

I-TiEN-su-MiN Mountain, 667. 

Ice, people and animals floated upon, 
36 ; but little formed in China, 354 ; 
wonder of the change of water into, 
354; described as "water-silver," 
327. 

Iceland, wood and animals floated to, 
36 ; a possible route to America, 37. 

Icelandic sagas, credibility of, 100. 

Icelanders, America discovered by, 
193 ; and named Vinland, 452. 

Icy Cape, tattooing of people near, 
346. 

"Icy-silver," ice possibly so called, 
355. 

Idols, of Egypt, 71 ; of Java, 612 ; of 
Mexico, 597, 613. 

Igurians, New- Year's day of, 499. 

Iliad, described as a sun-myth, 341. 

Illegitimate children, treatment of, 
463. 

Images, of Buddha, in Fu-sang, 298 ; 
in London, 5 ; resembling Buddha, 
in America, 200, 591, 592, 594, 595 ; 
in Buddhist temples, 606 ; of spirits, 
exposed in Fu-sang, 212, 294; in 
Asia, 235 ; of dead, made in Mexi- 
co, 467 ; and Yucatan, 468. 

Imperial Library of Paris, 618. 

Impregnable, Chinese transcription 
of, 404. 

Jname, a Japanese minister, 628. 

Incas, ritual of, 210. 

Incense, offered- to the gods, 598. 

Incense-burner of Chinese emperor, 
520. 

Incombustible fabric, 225. 

Incontinence, punishment of, 584. 

India, intercourse Ijetween, and China, 
10, 113, 440. 446; traces of, should 
not be souglit in America, 201 ; 



veneration of cross in, 553-; pyra- 
mids of, 601 ; marriage ceremonies, 
619; divisions of zodiac in, 144; 
architecture of, 96; inhabited by 
pygmies, 494 ; garments of people 
of, 617; manner of carrying chil- 
dren in, 620 ; cakes made in, 620 ; 
nopal-plant in, 76. 

Indians, name given to American 
tribes by Columbus, 230. 

Indian Bulletin, article from, 16. 

Indian corn. See Maize. 

Indian fig. See Prickly-pear and JVo- 
pal. 

Indigo, preparation of, 471. 

Indra-Saba, temple of, 135. 

Inferno, described by Lily, 454. 

Ing-cheu, an island of the genii, 251. 

Inhabitants of the Country of Women, 
493. ^ 

Innuit. See Esquimaux. 

Inscriptions at Palenque, 431. 

Intemperance, view of, by Buddhists, 
547 ; of lamas of Mongolia, 585. 

Interment, practiced by Toltecs, 467. 

International Congress of American- 
ists, 16. 

Intlacatl, definition of, 410. 

Iowa, elephant-pipes found in, 610. 

Iris-plant, said to be found in Fu- 
sang, 41, 211. 

Irish, discovery of America bv. 92. 

Iron, lack of, in Fu-sang, 288, 431 ; 
not known to Mexicans, 98, 431 ; or 
other American tribes, 117, 159, 172, 
194 ; or in some Asiatic countries, 
177; or in Loo Choo Islands, 194; 
its introduction into Japan, 637, 
636 ; its use in Japan, 117, 164, 640 ; 
rare in Japan, 47. 

Iroquois, hospitality of^ 349 ; councils 
of, 436. 

Isis, place of, in the zodiac, 150. 

Islands, of the Pacific, 36. 101; of 
Fire, 225 ; of Females, '188 ; of the 
Flowing Stream, 679 ; described as 
mountains, 644. 

I'Isle, M. de, letter to, 14, 180 ; map 
by, 29. 

Istayata, a Mexican town, 509. 

Italraen. See Kamtchatkans. 

Itineraries, references to, 10, 137. 

Itoa, definition of, 413. 

Itzas, traditions of, 557; length of 
records of, 559. 

Itzamna, or Zamna, 556. 

Itzcalli, a Mexican month, 512. 

Itzcoayo tilmatli, a mantle, 473. 

Itzcuintli, or dog, 147. 



7.64 



INDEX. 



Itzehecaya, or "Wind of Knives," 
590. 

Ivory, found near Kolyma River, 35 ; 
and in Alaska, 356. 

Ixneztlaciulolli, a mantle, 474. 

Ixtenextl, a mound at Cholula, 605. 

Iztli, meaning of, 605. 

Ixtlilxochitl, quotations from, 62, 420. 

Jyo, a Japanese province, 249. 

Iza-naki-no-mikote, a Japanese divin- 
ity, 47. 

Iztaceihuatl, or " the White Woman," 
a Mexican moiintain, 506, 507. 

Iztatl, Aztec word for salt, 508. 

Jziauhyapatli, a Mexican plant, 509. 

Iztmihyatl, a species of Artemisia, 
508, 509. 

Iztli, or obsidian (q. v.), 151, 529, 



Jack-tree, of India, 166. 

Jackass rabbits, size of, 534. 

Jacob, history of, a sun-myth, 341. 

Jade-stone, placed in tombs, 617 ; tree 
of,416. 

Jaitdivanardma, a pyramid, 602. 

Jan, meaning of, 503. 

JAN-trees, 649. 

Japan, meaning of the name, 174,178, 
549; situation of, 630; route to, 
from China, 634, 635; distance 
from China, 630 ; from Liao-tong, 
19 ; from Coi'ea, 65 ; direction from, 
of « Marked Bodies," 316, 328 ; of 
Great Han, 639; of Fu-sang, 227, 
242, 328 ; of Chu-ju, 495 ; on route 
from China to Pu-sang, 63 ; and 
from China to America, 22 ; nearer 
Great Han than Fu-sang is, 333 ; 
no country like Great Han between 
it and China, 109 ; the Pacific gulf- 
stream flowing from, 9 ; its people 
acquainted with lands north, 29; 
and other foreign countries, 633 ; 
connected with Kamtchatka by the 
Kurile Islands, 8 ; journey from, to 
Aleutian Islands, 335 ; map drawn 
in, 29 ; communication with Pacific 
islands, 101 ; ship of, wrecked on 
Oahu, 101 ; one wrecked near Queen 
Charlotte's Island, 102 ; discovery 
of a great continent, 101 ; its sailors 
may have drifted to America, 168, 
241 ; no proof of such voyages, 122 ; 
a " Country of Women " iii, 178, 638, 
640 ; no place east of, for " Country 
of Women," 110, 120; called Fu- 
sang, 242, 249 ; reason for name, 



57; denial that it was ever called 
Fu-sang, 109, 120 ; identified as Fu- 
sang, 46, 174, 191 ; said not to be 
Fu-sang, 58, 65, 108, 109, 164, 178, 
403, 639 ; no fu-sang tree in, 640 ; 
customs not same as those of Fu- 
sang, 641 ; points of resemblance to 
Fu-sang, 47; well known to Chi- 
nese, 178, 229 ; too well known for 
fables, 163, 639 ; thought to be the 
eastern limit of the world, 94 ; called 
Wa or Ho, 250; history of, 13, 178, 
623 ; Ma Twan-lin's account of, 247 ; 
Li Yen-shau's description of, 332 ; 
how founded, 165; colonized by 
Chinese, 84, 180, 251 ; settlement of 
SiN-fu in, 633 ; expedition men- 
tioned by Japanese historians, 252 ; 
first sovereigns of, 624; early rec- 
ords, 623 ; mythical stories, 252 ; of 
genii, 681 ; inhabited by Ainos, 84 ; 
non-intercourse with foreign na- 
tions, 102; attacks upon Sin-ra 
and Pe-tsi, 626, 627; conquest of 
Kao-li, 628 ; of Jesso, 85 ; colonies 
from, 63; intercourse with Corea, 
332, 636, 639 ; with Wu, 627 ; with 
Continent of Asia, 625-629 ; embas- 
sies to and from, 84, 625, 626 ; par- 
ticularly to China, 624, 626, 632, 
635 ; introduction of Buddhism, 5, 
62, 110, 121, 164, 174, 628, 629, 635, 
641 ; arts introduced by Buddhist 
priests, 572 ; religion, 125 ; worship, 
157 ; married priests in, 585 ; cross- 
es used as sign of peace, 552 ; be- 
lief regarding the judge of the 
dead, 6l4 ; altars, 133 ; journeys of 
Buddhist monks from, 80; visit of 
architects to, 627; petrified wood 
in, 249 ; great age of sovereigns, 
624 ; length of the li or ri, 331 ; 
sea-crabs in, 84 ; no stags reared in, 
164 ; its capital, 21 ; outbreak of a 
contagion, 628 ; poisonous insects, 
681 ; excess of females, 632 ; the 
Chi-shuai, 632 ; use of knotted 
cords as records, 635 ; introduction 
of the compass, 627 ; the pomegran- 
ate, 625; titles of nobility, 629, 
640; music, 629; iron, 627; use of 
iron, 117, 164; and other metals, 
636, 637, 640 ; of gold, silver, and 
copper, 164, 629 ; vine indigenous 
to, 58 ; its names, 42 ; arms used in, 
164, 631 ; custom of wearing swords, 
681 ; civil war in, 632 ; walled cities 
of, 631, 640 ; no horses in early days, 
178; introduction of horses, 100, 



INDEX. 



765 



627; use of post-horses, 626; no 
carts in, 640 ; or wagon roads, 480 ; 
animals of, 631 ; products of, 631 ; 
the reign of an empress, 626 ; called 
Zin-gu Kwo-gu, 632 ; tattooing, 631, 
635 ; cycles. 143 ; zodiac, 144 ; Chi- 
nese calendar, 630 ; Chinese litera- 
ture, 629, 630 ; introduction of art 
of witing, 624, 637, 640; and of 
writing-paper, 638 ; customs of, 631 ; 
polygamy in, 632 ; punishment of 
crime in, 632 ; garments of Dairi 
worn only once, 617; garments of 
people, 631 ; mourning-garments, 
468, 635, 640; mourning customs, 
632, 635 ; home of the Toltecs, 62 ; 
and of the natives of Bogota, 6§ ; 
resemblance of people to American 
tribes, 62, 155 ; their knowledge of 
America, 104; words in American 
languages, 157; its people might 
decipher American inscriptions, 
156 ; resemblance of their vases to 
those of the Mexicans, 573 ; embas- 
sy fi'om, to the U. S., 103 ; its people 
in Hawaii, 100; their resemblance 
to Hawaiians, 102. 

Japan, Annual Register of. See Ni- 
poti Ki. 

Japan, Sea of, 139. 

Japanese Encyclopaedia, 107. See, 
also, Wa-kan-san-sai-dzou-ye. 

Japanese junks. See Junks. 

Java, religion of, 124, 545 ; Buddhists 
of, 5 ; temple of Boro-Budor in, 61, 
135, 602 ; week of five days in, 475, 
571 ; symbolism of colours in, 616. 

Jebis, account of, 83, 84. 

Jeflferson, Thomas, a letter to, 112. 

Jei Kwan, a Buddhist priest, 629. 

Jemes, estufa at, 435. 

Jenghis Khan. See Chinggis Chalcan. 

Jesso, its discovery by Hollanders, 21 ; 
account of, 21 ; customs, 44 ; bold- 
ness of its people, 103 ; its north- 
ern coast, 46 ; tiger-skins exported 
from, 681 ; Chinese voyages to, 19, 
180; attacks upon people of, 86; 
their conquest by Japanese, 85; 
their revolt, 627; they drive out 
the Japanese, 86 ; said to be WAN 
ShXn, or the land of '* Marked Bod- 
ies," 20. 21, 44, 186; this statement 
denied, 92, 335. 

Jesso, Sea of, on route to California, 
22. 

Jesso, Upper, name of Kamtchatka, 
25. 

Jesuits, remembrance of, by Japanese, 



102 ; their change of the length of 
the li, 330. 

Jesus, Chinese characters used for, 
400. 

Je-tschay, meaning of name, 88; 
distance from Kamtchatka, 88. 

Jeu-puh country, 664. 

Jewels, the three, of Buddhism, 125. 

JiN-cHiN-NGAN, a Chinese author, 676. 

Jin Tsung, a Chinese emperor, 231. 

JoH-MUH, a term for the fu-sang tree, 
400. 

Joly, Professor, remarks of, 202. 

Jomard, M., refutation of his opinion, 
76. 

Jones, Rev. N. W., argument by, 16. 

Journal Asiatique, article from, 669. 

Jouschanu, name for absinthe, 511. 

Ju-CHE, or Djourdje, 45, 137. 

Ju-pi, or "Fish-Skins," 90. 

Juitemal, king of Guatemala, 588. 

J ulien, M. Stanislas, reference to trans- 
lation by, 188 ; his preparation for 
translating, 257 ; his translation of 
account of Fu-sang, 263; of land 
of " Marked Bodies," 317 ; of Great 
Han, 325. 

Junks, Japanese, wrecked upon the 
Kurile Islands, 10 ; on the Aleutian 
Islands, 10; drifted to California, 
9 ; picked up at sea, 156. 

Juvaka, robes presented by, to Bud- 
dha, 552. 



K 



Ka, interchanged with Sha, 414. 

Ka ftikano ivonnoko, 628. 

Ka-shi-mie, or Cashmere, 446. 

Kabah, elephant's trunk at, 607. 

Kadiak, near the American coast, 
340 ; amber found in, 356 ; popula- 
tion of, 341 ; Esquimaux, 344 ; 
dwellings, 353; tattooing, 346; its 
people can not understand Unalas- 
kans, 344. 

Kai-yu Country, 665. 

Kali, wife of Siva, 546. 

Kalidasa, works of, 144. 

Kalmucks, food of herds of, 511. 

Kaloshes. See Koljushes. 

Kamtchatka, description of, 86 ; dis- 
tance from China, 87, 183 ; Chinese 
knowledge of, 19, 180; suzerainty 
exercised over, by China, 123 ; called 
Upper Jesso, 25 ; distance from Je- 
TSCHAY, 88; Ainos near, 84; isl- 
ands near coast, 9 ; islands con- 
necting it with Japan, 8, 22 ; ship- 



766 



INDEX. 



wrecked Japanese in, 101 ; said to 
be Great Han, 20, 52; not Ureat 
Han, 45 ; identified with Lieu-kuei, 
53, 54, 87 ; which was confounded 
with Loo Choo Islands, 248 ; its sea 
receives the Ouda River, 25; dis- 
tance from, to Alaska, 164 ; visited 
by Alaskans, 183 ; winds blow from, 
to America, 62; climate, 28, 33, 89 ; 
animals of, 89, 90; reindeer of, 59, 64. 

Kamtchatkans, 26, 33 ; their dwell- 
ings, 88, 353; their merry nature, 
347 ; their songs, 91 ; their mar- 
riage ceremonies, 99 ; their punish- 
ment of thieves, 358. 

KAN-fish, 645. 

Kan-mei Mountain, 644. 

Kan-shui, or " Sweet Waters," 163. 

Kan-tsz' fish, 646. 

Kan-yu's Body, 657. 

KXng Mountain, 649. 

K'ang, definition of, 435. 

Kang-hi, Encyclopaedia of, 86, 246. 

Kang-wha, Admiral Roze's visit to, 
528. 

Kaniagmioutes, religion of the, 6. 

Kao Marsh, 655. 

Kao River, 654. 

Kao-kiu-li. See Corea. 

Kao-li, conquered by Japan, 628; 
intercourse with Japan, 626-629; 
paper carried from, to Japan, 638 ; 
Corea (q. v.) a transcription of, 47. 

Kao-shi Mountain, 645. 

Kapilapura, Buddha, son of king of, 
80. 

Kapilavastu, Buddha's birthplace, 1. 

Kaptchak, said to be Ki-pin, 445. 

Kargaules, at a fair in Asia, 8. 

Karlsefne's adventures, 453. 

Karok squaws, tattooing of, 347. 

Kata-kana, invention of, 637. 

Katuns of Yucatan, length of, 559. 

Kazwini, references to, 146, 147. 

Ke-kia-sse, an Asiatic tribe, 215. 

Kedu, temple in, 602. 

Kei-ko, a Japanese prince. 624. 

Kentucky, bones found in, 428. 

Kerkis, or Kergis, 24. 

Kesmacoran, Island of Females near, 
488. 

Keu, a character resembling that for 
copper, 388. 

Keu River, 656. 

Keu-chwang Mountain, 644. 

K'eu-wang, description of, 661. 

Keu-yao, the " barbed exotic," 388. 

Key West, preparation of agave fiber 
at, 526. 



Khalkhas, visited by Buddhists, 7. 

Khalupaswaddhaktinka, defiiiition 
of, 442. 

Khi, king of a province of Corea, 251. 

Khi-tan, an Asiatic tribe, 24, 45. 

K'l, meaning of, 410, 444. 

K'l Mountain, 651, 667. 

K'l-trees, 654. 

K'l-CHUNG Mountain, 652. 

K'l-KiN, a Chinese book, 656. 

Ki-LiN, varieties of, 670. 

Ki-PiN, Chinese text regarding, 296 ; 
identification of, 123 ; identified as 
Cabalistan, 77 ; as Samarcand, 108, 
212, 213 ; as Kaptchak, 445 ; as Co- 
phene (q. v.), 42, 233, 

Ki-SHU, fu-sang tree in, 182. 

KiA-CHiNG-SHi, a Chinese author, 675. 

KiA-SHA, definition of, 442. 

KiA-SHE-Mi-LO, or Cashmere, 446. 

KiA-Y Island, 31. 

KiA-YU, a book of Confucius, 673. 

KiAH-SHi Mountain, 650. 

KiANG River, 40. 

KiANG Tribe, 664. 

Kiang-chang's Great Canon, 661, 

KiANG-JONG, a race of barbarians, 226. 

KiANG-TUNG River, 645. 

KiANG-YEN, a Chinese scholar, 677, 

KiAo People's Country, 661, 

KiEH-KiAH-sz' Country, 246. 

KiEN River, 645. 

KiEN-KANG, capital of China, 206. 

Km River, 647. 

Kih-kiun's " Bamboo Book," 657, 659, 
665, 

Kih-nO River, 648, 

KiH-YUNG Country, 667. 

Kijofiko, presents made by, 625. 

Kiki-zin, title of ruler of Fu-sang, 108. 

Kin, description of, 236, 391, 

K'lN Mountain, 655, 

KiN-SEH Forest, 647, 

King, definition of, 499, 672. 

King River, 646. 

K'ing-chang, a province of Corea, 
625. 

KiNG-CHEU, capital of China, 40, 206, 
222. 

King Hang, a Japanese prince, 624. 

King of Fu-sang, title of, 280, 409 ; 
musicians of, 282, 421 ; changes of 
garments, 282 ; mourning of, 296, 
466 ; his palace, 224, 528, 

King of Mexico, title of, 410 ; musi- 
cians of, 423 ; pomp of, 421, 423 ; 
ceremonies at death of, 467 ; delay 
before crowning his successor, 469 ; 
palace of, 529. 



INDEX. 



767 



King of Chiehimecas, deer kept by, 
430. 

King of the country of "Marked 
Bodies," 320. 

Kings of Japan, age of, 624. 

Kings of Asia, paths swept before, 
617. 

Kingsborough, Lord, 71, 77. 

Kinri, a Japanese title, 638. 

Kio or KiAi, an Asiatic country, 215, 
216. 

Kirkis, Kirghis or Kirguis, 45, 246, 511. 

K'l-Tsu, the first Chinese prince in 
Corea, 43. 

Kitsuno <S'MA;w,ne, expedition of, against 
Pe-tsi, 627. 

Kituy, a junk wrecked upon, 10. 

Kiu-NU, a Japanese province, 633, 
634. 

Kiu-six, visit of, to Japan, 627. 

Kiu-TAN, Chinese transcription of 
Gautama, 558. 

Kiu-YE-HAN, a place between China 
and Japan, 630, 631, 634. 

Kiu-YUEN, a Chinese poet, 47, 207, 
218, 240. 

KiiJN, definition of, 481. 

KiuN rushes, 652. 

KiiJNG, a poisonous insect, 656. 

Klaproth, J., article by, 39; refer- 
ences to, 51, 106, 182, 624 ; his at- 
tack upon de Guignes's theoiy, 14 ; 
motive for, 106 ; its weakness, 120, 
228 ; alone in his views, 229 ; pos- 
sibly communicated with, by Mr. 
Huttman, 51 ; informed as to Chi- 
nese knowledge of compass, 113, 
114; his suppression of a clause, 
468; account of petrified wood, 
249 ; of a Corean story, 250 ; an at- 
tempt to claim Titsingh's transla- 
tion, 85; works from which he 
translated, 182 ; his translation of 
the account of Fu-sang, 263. 

Knapp, Mr., superintendent of a Min- 
ing Co., 117. 

Knickerbocker Magazine, an article 

in, 15. 
Knistenaux, tattooing of women, 346 ; 

hospitality of, 350. 
Knotted cords used as records, 635. 
Ko-cHANG-TiAO-Li, the Code of Com- 
petitive Public Examinations, 676. 
Ko Bou Dzu Rolcu, a Japanese mem- 
oir, 636. 
Ko-Li-HAN, a Tartarian tribe, 23, 24, 

44, 45, 82. 
Kodom, the Siamese name for Gau- 
tama, 558. 



KoH or KOH-KOH fish, 651, 653. 

KoH Mountains, 648. 

Koliman, resembles a Chinese name, 

111- 
Koljushes, belief of, 6; customs of, 

83. 
Kolyma River, 8, 35. 
KoNG-NGAN-KUE, a description of Con- 
fucius, 672. 
Koiai (or Corea, q. v), 47, 626. 
Ko-rei-ten-o, a Japanese Dairi, 251. 
Kotzebue Sound, people near, 346. 
Koukounoor, visited by Buddhists, 7. 
Koumiss, made in China, 396 ; from 
milk, 395 ; a similar liquor made in 
Mexico, 396 ; Chinese text regard- 
ing it, 286. 
Koimiq, a native of Corea, 251. 
Krishna, the Hindoo Apollo, 152. 
Ku-FUNG Mountain, 650. 
Ku-KiN-TU-SHU-Tsi-cHiNG, an Ency- 
clopiEdia, 208, 211, 212, 221, 226, 
395. 
Ku-KUNG, king of Chou, 165. 
Ku-MAO Mountain and River, 645. 
Ku-SHE Mountain, 650. 
Ku-TU-MOEi, an Asiatic tribe, 70. 
Ku-YANG-TSA-Tsu, a Chinese book, 

675. 
KuAN-MEi, quotation from, 221. 
Knho, a Japanese title, 638. 
Kuchin Indians, 245. 
Kudic races, influenced by Buddhism, 

5. 
KtJEH Mountain, 063. 
KuEi-Ki, intercourse between, and 

Tan-cheu, 633. 
KuEi-YEU-KUANG-SHi, a book, 696. 
KuH, an Asiatic country, 246. 
KuH-LiANG History, 662. 
KiJH-LiNG-YU-T'iEN Mountain, 665. 
Ktdgun, a Mongolian term, 484. 
Kume-wasi, defeat of, 626. 
KuNG, meaning of 523, 595 ; length 

of, 331. 
KuNG Man-wang, visit of, to Japan, 

626. 
K'UNG-SANG Mountain, 647. 
Kung-yang's " Chronicles," 647. 
Kuo-p'o, a Chinese author, 676. 
Kuo-YEN-NiEN-ssE, a Chinese book, 

Kurile Islands, between Japan and 
Kamtchatka, 8 ; the Pacific gulf- 
stream flowing past, 9 ; junk 
wrecked on, 10 ; Ainos in, 84 ; route 
to Fu-sang passed near, 447; Fu- 
sang one of, 243; Country of Wom- 
en in, 245. 



TG8 



INDEX. 



Kuro-siwo, the Pacific gulf-stream, 9, 

10, 121. 
Kuskoquim women, tattooing of, 

346. 
Kw'A-FU, 646 ; death of, 667. 

KWAN-YIN, vow of, 4. 

KwANG-wu, a Chinese emperor, 625, 
632. 

KwEi, a species of bird, 654. 

Kw'ei, or cattle with one foot, 668. 

KwEi-Ki, sea of, 633. 

Kwo, definition of, 394. 

KwoH, definition of, 406. 

Kw'UN People, 665. 

KwuN-LUN, a range of mountains, 
252 ; countries near, 662 ; a tree of 
stone in, 254 ; a possible transcrip- 
tion of quaulitla, 254 ; an island so 
called, 253 ; meaning of the charac- 
ters, 253. 

Kyska, one of the Aleutian Islands, 9. 



L and N interchanged, 413, 606. 

Labna, elephant's trunk at, 201. 

Lac insect, used in Cabul, 77. 

Lahore, ?ioj9aZ-plant found in, 76. 

Lakchmi, statuette of, 136. 

Lake Superior, copper mined near, 
117. 

Lama, title of Buddhist priests, 65, 
589 ; its form in Aztec, 589 ; as art- 
ists, 606. See, also, Buddhist 
priests. 

Lang-yuen, Chinese account of, 252. 

Languages, of Asia, differences be- 
tween, 153 ; of Aleutian Islands and 
Alaska, 344 ; Esquimaux, 81 ; re- 
semblance of Asiatic and American, 
111, 150, 156, 171, 173; American, 
of common origin, 51 ; Mexican, all 
connected, 96 ; unintelligible, 516. 

Lancet fish, 645. 

Land in Pacific Ocean, 336. 

Land and Sea Classic. See Shan Hai 
King. 

Lanka, or Ceylon, 554. 

Lao Country, 661 ; River, 656. 

Lao-tse, his journey to the west, 79. 

Lapps, influenced by Buddhism, 5. 

Laputa, Pu-sang compared to, 243. 

Laquenons, signs of zodiac, 146. 

Laurus Indiea, Aztec name for, 509, 

Lead known by Aztecs, 431. 

Leao-tong, port of embarkation, 19, 
20, 43. 

Leaves of fu-sang tree, 386, 388, 389. 

Ledyard, letter to Jefferson, 111. 



Legumes, Chinese classification of, 
213. 

Lei Mountain, 644. 

Leland, C. Gr., early article by, 15, 
231; his book " Pusang," 13, 15, 
170, 229 ; his criticism of Dr. Bret- 
schneider, 179. 

Lemon, Chinese name for, 415. 

Leopard-headed couch. See Lion- 
headed. 

Lew-chew. See Loo Choo. 

Li, length of, 20, 44, 54, 65, 86, 163, 
328, 329, 330, 332; variable, 186, 
330; uncertain, 227; Klaproth's 
estimate, 228 ; about one third of a 
mile, 332 ; error in number between 
China and Japan, 630 ; Chinese and 
Japanese, not same length, 331, 
332. 

Li River, 648 ; Mountain, 665 ; peli- 
cans, 650. 

Li-ling's Body, a god, 663. 

Li-SAO, or " The Dissipation of Sor- 
rows," 47, 56, 207, 218, 220, 240. 

Li-SHi, a Chinese author, 677. 

Li T'ai-pi, a Chinese poet, 47, 226. 

Li-YEN, or Li Yen-shau, a Chinese 
historian, 19, 40, 45, 163, 192, 221, 
226, 260, 332. 

Liang dynasty, establishment of, 40, 
222, 440 ; Great Han first known in 
time of, 92; Hwui ShXn's story 
contained in books of, 222 ; length 
of Li in time of, 20. 

LiANG-SHU, or Records of the Liang 
Dynasty, 92, 93, 260. 

LiANG-ssE-KONG-Ki, or Memoirs of 
Four Lords of the Liang Dynasty, 
179, 221, 223. 

Liang Wu-ti, founder of the Liang 
dynasty, 222. 

Libations, offered images, 212. 

LiE-TSEU, a Chinese philosopher, 676. 

LiEU-FONG-TSA-Tsu, a book, 676. 

LiEU-KirEi, meaning of name, 88 ; de- 
scription of, 26, 86, 87, 206 ; a pen- 
insula, 54, 228 ; its distance from 
China, 54 ; identified as Kamtchat- 
ka, 26, 52, 54, 87; with Taraikai, 
45 ; not Great IIan, 207, 228 ; Chi- 
nese colonies sent to, 84 ; Loo Choo 
Islands confounded with, 248. 

LiH River, 654. 

LiK-PiT, pygmies of, 495. 

Lime used in Mexico, 605. 

Lin-t'ao, a giant in, 663. 

Lines, tattooed on face, 346, 347. 

LiNG-GOEi. See Lieu-kuei. 

LiNG-Ki, or spirits of the earth, 671. 



INDEX. 



769 



Ling-ling, or striped cattle, 648. 

Lions, groups of, 129. 

Lion-headed couches of Buddha, 129 ; 
in Yucatan, 127, 593. 

Liquor, drunk in Fu-sang, 276, 397 ; 
made from agave sap, 98, 196, 533 ; 
not mentioned in account of Pu- 
sang, 235 ; use prohibited by Bud- 
dha, 547; not drunk by Quetzal- 
coatl, 547; drunk by lamas, 585; 
drunk at Chinese weddings, 479. 
See, also. Pulque. 

Lisbon, voyage from, by Arabs, 37. 

Literary characters of Aztecs, 421. 

Lizard, Chinese description of, 680. 

Llamas, use of, 170; called "sheep," 
115; possibly called " cattle," 202 ; 
or " horses," 59. 

Lo, or koumiss, 211, 396. 

Lo, kingdom of, 633. 

Lo-LANG, a district of Corea, 43, 630, 
635. 

Lo-pi, a Chinese author, 674. 

Lobscheid, Kev. W., Chinese Gram- 
mar, 155. 

Locks. See Hair. 

Locusts, eaten in Fu-sang, 225 ; dam- 
age by, 649 ; poisonous, in Japan, 
681. 

LoH River, 646. 

Lok, Michael, map drawn by, 870. 

London, Buddhist image found in, 5. 

London Illustrated News, 134. 

Lone Mountain, 646. 

Long-armed People, 495. 

LoNG-WEi-pi-SHU, a Chinese book, 
206, 213, 221, 228. 

Loo Choo Islands, various names for, 
248; iron not known in, 177, 194; 
confounded with Lieu-kuei, 248. 

Lotus, an emblem of the East, 58 ; of 
Egypt, 57 ; offered to Buddha, 128. 

Louisa County, Iowa, elephant-pipes 
in, 610. 

Louisiana, account of, by de Tonti, 
31, 34. 

Lu, sounds of the character, 411. 

Lu-Ki Mountain, 649. 

LC-Ki, the Chinese Book of Rites, 60. 

Lu-LUN, Buddhist books, 635. 

Lt'-SHX, a Chinese author, 643, 649, 
663. 

Lu-ssE-TAO, a Buddhist devotee, 635. 

Lucky and unlucky days, 590. 

LuN-YU, a book by Confucius, 637, 
672. 

Lunar Houses, 144, 149, 150. See, 
also, Nakxhafras. 

LuNG-CHiH, or nine-tailed foxes, 651. 
49 



LuNG-POH Country, 662. 

Lutes and lyres, 647, 661. 

Luzon Islands. See Philippine Isl- 
ands. 

Lye, from ashes of the fu-sang, 224, 
525. 

M 

M and V interchanged, 408. 

Ma Twan-lin, a Chinese historian, 28, 
64, 193, 231, 440 ; source of his ac- 
count, 86, 223, 260; merit of his 
work, 217; changes in text, 260; 
omissions, 357; account of Corea, 
209 ; of Chu-ju, 495 ; embassies 
mentioned by, 624 ; statement that 
Fu-sang is east of Japan, 242 ; first 
studied by de Guignes, 204. 

Macana, a weapon, 437. 

Macassar, Chinese transcription of, 
404, 407. 

Maceta, Father, removal of, 562. 

Maegowan, Mr. , paper by, 182. 

Madura. See Bread-fniit tree. . 

Magazine of American History, 181. 

jMagdalena, statue at, 537. 

Magellan, strait of, Chang-jin near, 
36. 

]Magic, belief in, 590. 

Magnetic chariots and fish, 114. 

Maguey, described as a product of 
tlie agave (q. v.), 235. 

Mahd, Chinese translation of, 340. 

Mahcira, a fabulous fish, 146. 

Mahavanso, accounts preserved in, 5. 

Maiden, Mountain of the, 645. 

Maidosegee, a Chippewa chief, 611. 

Mailla, Pere, translations by, 39. 

Maize, called "wheat," li7; Aztec 
term for, 517; said to be indige- 
nous to both continents, 97 ; possi- 
bly described as " little beans," 31, 
213, 315. 

Malacca, Chinese transcription of, 407. 

Malay, language, 68 ; name of bana- 
na,' 58, 405, 642; garments, 618; 
custom of blackening the teeth, 
681. 

IMales, Island of, 488. 

Mammoth, or mastodon, early exist- 
ence of, in America, 203, 608 ; ivory 
from, 35 ; its head as an oi'nament, 
607. 

Man-hu Mountain, 667. 

IManacicas, tradition of, 564. 

Managua Lake, springs near, 534. 

Maneo-Capac, 143, 162, 198. 

Mandans, belief of, 123, 127 ; tortures 
of, 198 ; doorways of, 518. 



770 



INDEX. 



MIng-tsz' Mountain, 653. 

Mani, high-priest of, 557. 

Mantchoos, ancestors of, 45, 187 ; lan- 
guage of. 111; garments of, 90; 
term for Gautama, 588 ; cyclic 
years distinguished by colours, 99 ; 
their zodiac, 144, 149. 

Mantchooria, visited by Buddhist 
priests, 7 ; Great Han in, 186. 

Mantles, worn by Aztec kings, 472; 
from suj)erstitious ideas, 474. 

Manuscripts, liability of error in copy- 
ing, 449. 

Mao Mountain, 654. 

Mao-jin, or Hairy Men (q. v.), 21. See, 
also, Ainos and Crab-Barbarians. 

Mao-tsz' aborigines, 535. 

Maps, furnished by de Guignes, 121 ; 
unreliability of those made by Chi- 
nese, 242 ; use of name " Mexico " 
upon, 370; exhibited to Congress 
of Americanists, 371 ; errors in old, 
490. 

Maponos, tradition of, 564. 

Marble, found in Alaska, 356. 

Mare, Peter, elei)hant-pipe found by, 
610. 

"Marked Bodies," land of (Wan 
ShIx), description of, 21, 301, 316: 
meaning of term, 245 ; its distance 
from Japan, 19, 21, 328; and from 
Great Han, 324, 336 ; identified as 
Jesso, 20, 21, 22, 44, 186; denial, 
92, 335; as the Aleutian Islands, 
91, 335; as a land of Ainos, 84, 
186 ; difficulty in identifying, 214 ; 
a further account of, 357; Hwiii 
Shan the author, 301 ; examination 
of customs of, 343. 

Markets of Fu-sang, 288, 431; of 
Mexico, 432 ; of land of " Marked 
Bodies," 322. 

Marriages, among Hindoos, 619; in 
China, 476; among the She-goei, 
25 ; in Mexico, 99, 479, 618 ; in Pu- 
sang, 292 ; of prisoners, 196, 272 ; 
consummation of, postponed, 619; 
of Buddhist priests, 585 ; of Mexi- 
can priests, 578, 581 ; celebrated by 
tying garments, 157. 

Masaya, volcano of, 531. 

Massachusetts, as described by North- 
men, 452. 

Mastodon. See Mammoth. 

MatlalxihuiU, a IMexican plant, 471. 

Matstimai, a name of Jesso, 21, 186. 

Maundevile, his account of Amazons, 
244 ; his repetition of Caesar's story, 
;336. 



Mdxifios, thought to be American 
tribes, 56. 

Ilaxfli, a Mexican garment, 618. 

Mayas, mourning customs of, 466; 
divisions of day by, 476 ; symbolism 
of colours among, 616; books of, 
618. 

Mazapili, spoke Aztec language, 866. 

Mazatecas, kept tame deer, 431. 

Mazatl, Aztec word for " deer," 481. 

Me, meaning of the syllable in Aztec, 
376. 

Meals, hour at which eaten, 441, 581, 
584. 

Meeatl, definition of, 508. 

Mecha, definition of, 147. 

Mecitl, an early Aztec chief, 873. 

Medicine-men, called by same title as 
Buddhist lamas, 65 ; trials of, 857. 

Mediums of exchange, used by Az- 
tecs, 98. 

Mei fish, 652. 

Mei-jin, or "go-betweens," 476. 

Mei-yi; Mountain, 653. 

Melendez, Pierre, statement of, 31. 

Men with tails, account of, 451. 

Mendoza, Father de. Journey of, 563. 

Meng-kien, a Chinese author, 676. 

Menu, traditions of, 146. 

Mercator's atlas, name " Mexico " up- 
on, 870. 

Merhamhir, the Cophes River, 445. 

Merida, city founded near, 557. 

Meropide of Elien, 55, 

Merry nature, of people of " Marked 
Bodies," 818 ; of Alaskans and 
Aleuts, 347. 

Merychippus, an equine genus, 482. 

Mescal, a name for the agave, 377. 

M e s c a 1 e r o Apaches, expedition 
against, 890. 

Messigo, a variant of " Mexico," 371. 

Metals, in Japan, 640; in Fu-sang, 
431; in Mexico, 98, 481; art of 
casting, 572. 

Metamorphosis, of Xolotl, 237; of 
Cantico, 614; of Nu-cheu's Body, 
666. 

Metempsychosis, belief in, in India, 2 ; 
and among Alaskan tribes, 6. 

3Ietl, See Agave. 

Meu Mountain, 665. 

Mexico, meaning of the name, 373- 
881 ; its pronunciation, 872 ; region 
to which applied, 369-372 ; the first 
hearing of the name, 370; uncer- 
tainty as to its application, 370; 
reason for misunderstanding, 381 ; 
other place-names from same root, 



INDEX. 



771 



372; possibly transcribed by Chi- 
nese as Pu-SAXG-KWOH, 406; the 
country called " New Spain," 370 ; 
the city called " Tenochtitlan," 368 ; 
it agrees with the description of 
Fu-sang, 399 ; and is in region in- 
dicated, 361 ; identified as Fu-sang, 
12, 95 ; distance from Alaska, 183 ; 
as much east as south, 301 ; said to 
be too distant for Fu-sang, 189 ; 

< its early inhabitants, 96 ; inhabited 
successively by different tribes, 362 ; 
inhabited by the Toltecs, 364 ; his- 
tory of, 13 ; criticisms upon its 
historians, 621 ; means of inves- 
tigating its early history, 362 ; 
our imperfect knowledge, 709 ; 
changes in, 709 ; traditions of, 536, 
615, 706; analogies between arts 
and customs of, and those of Asia, 
154, 155, 706 ; non-intercourse with 
South America, 556; intercourse 
with Central America, 362 : its peo- 
ple of same race as other American 
tribes, 622 ; its people of to-day the 
descendants of the lower classes, 
156 ; civilization of other tribes 
same as that of the Aztecs, 368 ; its 
languages all connected, 96; its 
place-names nearly all Aztec, 366 ; 
its rainy season, 511 ; the days of 
its months, 148; its priests named 
Amanam, 74 ; monastery and nun- 
nery of, 576 ; its pyramids, 597 ; 
analogy of its religion with that of 
' Peru, 566 ; date of foundation of 
the empire, 19, 32 ; its limits, 367 ; 
titles of its nobility, 411, 413 ; of 
its ruler, 410 ; music played before 
him, 423 ; ceremony of marriage m, 
619; suspension - bridges of, 618 
false arch used in, 605 ; salt, 508 
copper, 432 ; obsidian mirrors, 522 
the only country in which such 
mirrors were made, 706 ; its char- 
acteristic vegetation, 510 ; cacti and 
agaves, 394 ; nothing like the T'ung 
tree in, 170 ; Broussonefia not found 
in, 230 ; monkeys of, 496, 506 ; deer 
of, 69; buffiiloes of, 427; law of, 
393 ; manuscript of. No. 2, 167. See, 
also, Aztecs. 

Mexitli (or Huitzilopoehtli, q. v.). the 
Aztec god of war, 373 ; possibly a 
deification of the centurv-plant, 
379 ; temple of, 599. 

Mice, migrations of, 8. 

Michoacan, inhabited by Toltecs, 365 ; 
included in Mexico, 371 ; Aztec 



place-names in, 367; its resem- 
blance to Chinese names. 111 ; mu- 
sic played before king of, 423; 
dress of its priests, 581 ; its mar- 
riage laws, 479 ; its mourning cus- 
toms, 466 ; springs of, 534. 

Micos, Spanish name for monkeys, 
497. 

Midlampa eliecatl, the north wind, 
461. 

llictlan, the Mexican Hades, 460, 
537; situated in the north, 461. 

Mictlan, or Mitla, ruins of, 95, 606 ; 
arrival of Wixipecocha at, 539 ; 
analogy of its ei\'ilization with that 
of Mexico, 362 ; dress of the pon- 
tiff, 581. 

Mictlan -cihuatl, resemblance of, to 
Kali, 546. 

Mictlan teuctli. Lord of Hades, 411. 

IMidnight, Aztec name for. 476. 

IMigrations of monkeys, 498. 

Mijes, spiritual i-ulers of, 540 ; arrival 
of Wixipecocha among, 538 ; writ- 
ten account of, 539. 

Ilikado, a Japanese title, 638. 

Military qualities, Chinese interest in, 
420. 

Military weapons, used by all Asiatics, 
357. 

Milk, in Fu-sang, 58, 286 ; not used 
by many nations, 021 ; not used by 
American tribes, 159, 169, 190; who 
have no term for it, 398 ; said to be 
used by American tribes, 59; not 
used in many parts of Asia, 159; 
rarely used in China, 100, 169 ; or 
Sumatra, 396 ; koumiss made from, 
395 ; the Aztec term for, 397 ; the 
term used figuratively, 398; and 
applied to the milky juice of a 
plant, 398 ; particularly to that of 
the century-plant, 397,^398; reason 
why its nature was not explained, 
449; a sea the colour of, 225, 239, 
533. 

Milky Way, compared to a foaming 
stream, 339; drift-wood said to 
float to, 341. ■ 

Mimana, intercourse of, with Japan, 
625, 627. 

Mix Marsh, 648. 

MiN-Tsz' Mountain, 053. 

Mines, of ancient inhabitants of 
America, 117; near Lake Superior, 
118. 

Mineral springs in Mexico, 534, 

MixG-siNG Mountain, 664. 

Minnesota Mining Co., 117. 



T72 



INDEX. 



Mints established in Japan, 629. 

Mirage, on American plains, 483. 

Mirrors, none but metallic made by- 
Chinese, 524; brought to Japan, 
625; held by gods, 614; concave 
and convex, 523 ; made by Aztecs, 
522 ; Mexican house of, 529 ; 
brought from Fu-sang, 223, 238, 
522, 685; must have come from 
Mexico, 705. 

Missionaries, Buddhist, countries vis- 
ited by, 5. 

Mississippi River, cattle near, 33; 
customs of tribes near, 34 ; fortifi- 
cations near, 198. 

Missouii River, Buddhists near, 143. 

Miters, worn by Buddhist lamas, 567, 
569 ; and by Mexican Wiyatao, 
580. 

Mithridates, references to, 88, 99. 

Mitla. See Mictlan. 

Mixcohuatl, a name of Mexitli, 381. 

Mixteca, colonized by followers of 
Quetzalcoatl, 543 ; high-priest of, 
579,587; vines in, 416. 

Mixtecapan, preservation of Toltec 
culture in, 575 ; feast of dead in, 
591. 

Mixture of nations, effects of, 153. 

Mo-HO, or Mo-KO, country of, 45, 87. 

Mo-Lu, a place near Japan, 634. 

Mo-siN. See Ainos. 

Moccasins not used in Oregon, 75. 

Modesty of Buddhist idols, 584. 

Mog, a name of the Mongolians, 82. 

MoH-TSz', a Chinese author, 661. 

Moh-t'u River, 646. 

Moluccas, voyages of their people, 36. 

Monapostiac, an island, 538. 

Monasteries, of Buddhists, 42, 125, 
569, 570 ; of Mexico, 143, 157, 575, 
576 ; founded by Quetzalcoatl, 575 ; 
at Uxmal, 594 ; of Totonacas, 578 ; 
education of children at. 583. 

Money, not used by Aztecs, 98, 432 ; 
or Alaskans, 356. 

Mongolians, genealogy of, 82 ; coun- 
try of, 87; their zodiac, 149; years 
of their cycles, 99, 470 ; their name 
in Chinese, 45 ; visited by Bud- 
dhist priests, 7 ; their lamas, 585 ; 
their name for Gautama, 558 ; inva- 
sion of Corea, 242 ; conquest of 
China, 34; history, 14; connected 
with the Esquimaux, 81 ; resem- 
blance of, to American tribes, 87, 
184. 

Monkeys, considered as a fallen form 
of mankind, 494; the inhabitants 



of the Country of Women, 493; 
their peculiarities, 498 ; their timid- 
ity, 503 ; devotion to their mates, 
504 ; young carried on back, 501 ; 
food of, 510, 512 ; of Mexico, 496; 
their colour, 506 ; said to exist in 
Virginia, 483; a Chinese account 
of, 514; compared to birds, 535; 
found in zodiacs, 147, 149. See, 
also, Quadrumana. 

Monoliths, about Buddhist tumuli, 
601. 

3Ionono heno ogosi, a Japanese, 628. 

Monsu, a king of Pe-tsi, 627. 

Montejo, Don Francisco, expedition 
of, 550. 

Monterey, bisons near, 428. 

Montezuma, title of, 410 ; expedition 
by, 469 ; belief in return of Quetzal- 
coatl, 547 ; which caused his ruin, 
197; pomp of, 422; like that of 
the Grand Khan, 159 ; reverence 
shown toward him, 412 ; path swept 
before his nephew, 617; palace of, 
62, 529; his garments, 472; said 
not to use same article twice, 617 ; 
a buffalo kept in his gardens, 427 ; 
immense horns shown to Spaniards, 
210; his interview with Cortez, 
422 ; presents to the ruler of Spain, 
416. 

Months, not mentioned in early Japa- 
nese records, 624 ; Mexican names 
for, 512 ; same as those of an Asiatic 
zodiac, 143 ; transposition of names 
of, 571 ; first, of Mexican year, 501. 

Montoya, Father de, journey of, 563. 

Monuments, with Buddhist inscrip- 
tions, 187; of Asia and America, 
143. 

Moon, "Companions" of the, 144; 
temple of the, 599; figured as a 
disk containing a iiare, 147. 

Moose, termed "cattle," 426. 

Morambecs, de la Hontan's account 
of, 32. 

Morgan, L. H., discovery by, 622. 

Mormons, at Salt Lake City, 177. 

Morus papyrifera, confounded with 
hibiscus, 46; identified as the fu- 
sang tree, 190. See. also. Paper- 
mulberry, and Bread-fruit tree. 

Moska language. 111. 

Motive for visiting America, 684. 

Mounds, in Mexico, 598 ; in Iowa, 
610 ; in Wisconsin, 610. 

Mound-builders, 171. 

Mountains and Seas, Classic of. See 
Shan Hai King. 



INDEX. 



773 



Mountain which Touches Heaven, 

644. 
Mountain of the Gods, 79. 
Mountains, groups of, mentioned in 

the Shan Hai King, 670. 
Mountains, term applied to islands, 

644. 
Mountain-goat, found in America, 

116. 
Mourning, customs of Fu-sang, 235, 
292, 466 ; garments not worn, 294 ; 
customs of Mexico, 99, 466; cus- 
toms of Japanese, 632, 635; gar- 
ments of the Japanese, 468, 640; 
garments of the Chinese, 468. 
Moyotlan, a ward of Mexico, 369. 
Mud-walls, boards used in making, 

419. 
Muddy Marsh, 648. 
Muddy River, 646. 

MuH-KUNG, renowned for virtue, 661. 
Mulberry-trees, illustration of, 387; 
of Fu-sang, 48, 56; not fu-sang 
trees, 164 ; Mountain of, 647. See, 
also. Paper-mulberry, and Bread- 
fruit tree. 
Muniajadono miko, a prince, 629. 
Mtimako. See Sogano Mumako. 
Murder, councils held regarding, 436. 
Murex, purple dye of, 76. 
Musa paradisiaca, the fu-sang tree, 

682. 
Ilusano mm, an embassador, 627. 
Musasi, a Japanese province, 629. 
Music, attending king of Fu-sang, 
282, 421 ; and kings of Mexico, 
423 ; Spaniards welcomed with, 423, 
424; priests welcomed with, 424; 
accompanying bridjil processions, 
478 ; used in courtship, 434 ; of 
Mexicans, 99, 422. 
Musimon montanus, found in Ameri- 
ca, 116. 
Musk-oxen, found in America, 114; 

horns of, 69. 
Mussel-shells, prized in Alaska, 356. 
Mussulman, Chinese transcription of, 

404. 
Mustard, the leaves of the fu-sang 

said to resemble, 387, 666. 
Mufsu, a Japanese province, 629. 
Muyscas (Muscas or Moskas, q. v.), 
article regarding, 63 ; ten-year cycle 
of, 60 ; tradition of, 560. 
Ilijcetes, a species of monkey, 497. 
Myths, analogy of Mexican and Asi- 
atic, 615; ^regarding the fu-sang 
tree, 236 ; of birth of Huitzilopoch- 
tli, 97 ; of the sun, 341 ; tales of 



Fu-sang not, 226 : of the Mexicans, 
154. See, also. Fables. 
Mythriac monuments of Asia, 56. 

N 

N and L interchanged, 413, 606. 

Na, Sanskrit syllables transcribed by, 
413. 

Naas Indians, carved posts of, 352. 

Nacapan, prickly-pears preserved in, 
395. 

Nachan, City of the Serpents, 111. 

Nagas, tribes so called. 111. 

Nah-to-sha, title of nobles of Fu- 
sang, 27, 41, 280 ; transcription of 
a Mexican title, 413. 

Nahuatalcas, early inhabitants of 
Mexico, 32. 

Nahuatl language. See Aztecs. 

Naishadika, definition of, 443. 

Nakchatras, or " Lunar Houses," 144, 
146. 

Naked People's Country, 495, 633, 
658. 

Nakhorchan, the City of Serpents, 111. 

Names, how bestowed by discoverers, 
94 ; old names applied to new ob- 
jects, 97, 100, 111, 115, 426; prac- 
tice of changing, 443 ; of Asiatic 
cities found in America, 111. 

Nancy, globe in library of, 371. 

Nan-king, capital of China, 206 ; why 
Hwui Shan did not stop at, 221. 

Nan-sse, or History of the South, 92, 
193, 260; its account of Fu-sang, 
260 ; of Kingdom of Women, 93 ; 
of " Marked Bodies," 214 ; de Guig- 
nes's translation of, 65 ; not written 
until after Liang dynasty, 246. 

Nan-sse-wang-yun-chuen, a book, 

676. 
Napoleon, life of, described as a myth, 

341. 
Narwhal, called espadarte, 145. 
Nasals, introduced by Chinese, 253, 

407 ; in Aztec language, 541. 
Navigation, by people of Jesso, 102 ; 

by Aleuts, 122, 139. 
Negative argument, refutation of, 

589. 
Negritos, account of, 83. 
Nemterequeteba. See Bochiea. 
Nepal, visited by Buddhists, 5 ; re- 
ligion of, 97, 545; title of its 
priests, 548 ; their marriages, 585 ; 
an insect found in, 77. 
Nequen, definition of, 391 ; mantles 
made from, 392. 



Y74 



INDEX. 



Neumann, Karl Friedrich, preceded 
by de Paravey, 67 ; monograph of, 
78 ; reference to, 103 ; a Chinese 
ode mistranslated by, 258 ; account 
of Fu - sang, 263 ; of land ol 
"Marked Bodies," 317; of Great 
Han, 325. 

New Annals of Voyages, 14. 

New Biscay, vines in, 416 ; bisons in, 
428. 

Newfoundland, horses found in,. 483. 

New Galicia, or Northern Mexico, 
367. 

New Grenada, traditions of, 560. 

New Guinea, visits to, 36 ; its people, 
84. 

New Holland, visits to, 36. 

New Leon, bisons in, 427. 

New Mexico, civilization of, 123, 168 ; 
customs of its people, 31 ; copper 
found in, 432 ; gypsum used as win- 
dow-glass in, 529 ; mirrors found 
in, 522 ; vines in, 415 ; bisons in, 
196 ; not Fu-sang, 196. 

New objects given old names, 97, 100, 
111, 115, 426. 

New Records of the Tang Dynasty, 
246. 

New Spain, Yucatan first so called, 
97 ; term afterward applied to Mex- 
ico, 371. 

New Zealand, visits to, 36. 

Nezahualcoyotl, laws of, 437, 438. 

Nezahualpilli, reforms of, 463. 

Ngao-po, ducks in, 662. 

Ni, a Mexican suffix, 414. 

Nr, a species of sacrifice, 647. 

Nicaragua, hot springs of, 534 ; Ama- 
zons in, 489 ; confession in, 579 ; 
calendar of, 501 ; mirrors of, 522 ; 
Aztec language in, 366, 367 ; Mexi- 
can empire extended to, 367 ; Span- 
ish invasion of, 424. 

Niches, with images of Buddha, Gl, 
71 ; of temple at Uxmal, 134. 

NiE-YAO-KiUN-Ti Mountain, 249. 

Nien-'rh-shi, the Great Annals of 
China, or the " Twenty-two Histori- 
ans," 260. 

NiH, a fabulous tree, 400. 

Nik-a-jak cave, 587. 

Niki, a tribe of Ainos, 85. 

Nineveh, pyramid at, 601. 

Nipple, Chinese character for, 503. 

Nipon-ki, or Annual Registers of 
Japan, 86. 100. 

Nirvana, 3, 485. 

Nishney Kolymsk, Americans at, 8. 

Nisiki, description of, 236. 



Niskah Indians, carved posts of, 
352. 

Niter, used as a mordaunt, 471. 

Niu-CHE, a Tartarian tribe, 24. 

Niu-JiN-KWOH, or Country of Wcm- 
en, 213. 

Niu-Mou-YO, or Land of Amazons, 
489. 

Noah, accounts of, 146. 

Noblemen, titles of those of Fu-sang, 
208, 280, 411, 413; among the Az- 
tecs, 99, 411, 413; of Japan, 629, 
640 ; deer kept by those of Chichi- 
raecas, 430; punishment of crimi- 
nals among, in Fu-sang, 274, 435 ; 
in Mexico, 437 ; in Darien, 437. 

NocMztli, or cochineal, 471. 

Noctli, or Nochtli, the prickly-pear, 
894. 

Noon, Aztec name for, 476. 

Nopal, or Nopalli, the prickly-pear, 
394 ; found in Asia, 76. 

Nopal de la tierra, 531. 

Nopaltzin, a Mexican chief, 430. 

North, Mexican Hades situated at, 
461. 

North Carolina, bisons in, 430. 

Northern Barbarians, 82. 

Northern Hag Mountain, 653. 

Northmen, Norsemen, Normans, or 
Norwegians, discoverers of Ameri- 
ca, 94, 113, 116, 162, 452. 

Northmen, named Esquimaux Skrael- 
ings, 81. 

Norton Sound, festivals at, 347. 

Norway, visited by Buddhists, 5 ; a 
possible route to America, 37. 

Notes and Queries for China and 
Japan, 16. 

Notices of Fu-sang, by Professor Will- 
iams, 230. 

Nou River, a branch of the Amoor, 
45. 

Nu, a place near Japan, 634. 

NiJ-cHEu's Body, metamorphoses of, 
666. 

NiJ-cHiNG Mountain, 654. 

Nu-HWo-YUEH-MU Couutry, 167. 

NiJ-Tsz'-KWOH, or Nu-WANG-KWOH, the 
Chinese Country of Women, 178, 
488. 

Nudity, partial, of people of Fu-sang, 
75. 

Nuevo Leon, bisons in, 428. 

Nuns, Chinese, duties of, 583 ; House 
of, at Uxmal, 134. 

Nunneries, Buddhist, 583 ; founded 
by Quetzalcoatl, 544; of Mexico, 
576. 



INDEX. 



Y75 



Nursing children over shoulder, 106, 

501. 
Nutlia, Mexican month used at, 108. 



Oahu, junk wrecked upon, 101. 

Oaxaca, a repetition of Ohosaka, 111 ; 
Aztec place-names in, 867 ; calen- 
dar of, 501 ; tradition of Wixipe- 
cocha in, 539. 

Obi River, called 0-pu, 24, 45. 

Object of this work, 11, 13. 

Oblations offered to images, 212. 

Obscure points, how cleared up, 218. 

Obsidian, description of, 522 ; its glit- 
ter, 529 ; its use for ornamenting 
buildings, 528; its Aztec name, 
151 ; mirrors made by Aztecs, 522 ; 
ring procured by Humboldt, 151. 

OcelotentlcqmlU, a Mexican mantle, 
474. 

Ocher, used by Mexicans, 471. 

Ochotsk, distance to America, 87. 

Oc na kin, name of sunset, 476. 

Ocosingo, an ornament at, 130. 

Ocotoclitli, the Mexican marten, 532, 

Ocotl, the Mexican pine, 471, 532. 

Odli, See Agave. 

(Eleococca, or the TUNG-tree, 235. 

Offerings presented to Chinese em- 
peror by envoy from Fu-sang, 223, 
238. 

Ohio, fortifications near, 198; bones 
of bison found in, 429. 

Ohodomono Sadefiko, expedition of, 
628. 

OhosaJca, name repeated in Oaxaca, 
111. 

Ojibeway language, term for milk in, 
398. 

Oku-jesso, or Karatchatka, 25. 

Old names given to new objects, 97, 
100, 111, 115, 426. 

Old Stories Revived, 141. 

Ollin, a zodiacal sign, 151 ; and a 
mantle, 474. 

Olmecs, vegetables raised by, 517. 

Ome tetecomayo, a mantle, 473. 

Ometochtli, a Mexican god, 411. 

Ommiades, an Arabic dynasty, 37. 

One-legged men, account of, 453. 

Onondaga chief, Canassatego, 349. 

Opium, Chinese name for, 414. 

Opochtli, a Mexican god, 380. 

0-PU, or Obi River, 24, 45. 

Orang-utan, accounts of the, 405. 

Orange, Chinese name of the, 415. 

Orat, a Mongolian tribe, 44. 



Ordos, country of, 44. 

Oregon, in the region named Fu-sang, 
163 ; Pacific gulf-stream near, 9 ; its 
climate, 75 ; its distance from Alas- 
ka, 164 ; route to, from Alaska, 447 
planks used in dwellings of, 420 
bones of horses discovered in, 483 
work on by Duflot de Mof ras, 68. 

Orkhon, an Asiatic river, 44, 187. 

Orlando di Lasso, reference to, 91. 

Ornaments, fondness of Alaskans an'd 
Aleuts for, 352 ; upon breast, 606 ; 
not worn by Buddhist monks, 442 ; 
resembling elephants' trunks, 607. 

Orocomay, an Amazon town, 493. 

Orphans reduced to slavery, 463. 

Ostphalians, and other tribes, 82. 

Ostrich, said to eat fire, 450. 

Ostrogoths, and other tribes, 82. 

Otomi language. 111, 156. 

Otosis, instances of, 587. 

Otter, cries of the, 679. 

Otumba, battle of, 491. 

Ou-CHANG, foot-prints in, 554. 

Ouda River, 25. 

Ouke-mofsi-no-kami, a god, 47. 

Ouranghai, visited by Buddhists, 7. 

Oussori, a branch of the Amoor, 138. 

Oxen, of Fvi-sang, 425 ; of America, 
100 ; metaphoric use of term, 485. 

Oxiones, said to have beasts' bodies, 
678. 

Oxyrinque, an astronomical sign, 145. 

Oyametl, or fir-tree, 219. 

Oysters, eaten by monkeys, 512. 

Ozomatli, or Mexican monkeys, 147, 
497, 514. 



Pa-ye-ku, an Asiatic tribe, 216. 

Pacheheko, a Buddhist saint, 561. 

Facli isi, or Hindoo backgammon, 620. 

Pacific coast of America, peculiarities 
of, 447 ; trends to east, 361 ; Ameri- 
can civilization confined to, 173, 
708 ; colonies of Toltecs upon, 365. 

Pacific gulf-stream, 121. See, also, 
Kuro-siioo. 

Pacific islands, how peopled, 36; 
bread-fruit trees on, 165; Chinese 
vessels wrecked upon, 106. 

Pacific Ocean, Mongolians upon coast 
of. 87; tradition of trade across, 
169; Palenque not situated near, 
200 ; land in, 336. 

Pagodas, like Mexican temples, 602. 

P'Ai-SHUE, a Corean river, 43. 

Paicume. See Tume. 

Paints used by Mexicans, 471 ; 



TT6 



INDEX. 



Painted Men or Painted Bodies, trans- 
lation of name WiN ShXn, 21, 186. 

Paintings on walls of temples, 605 ; 
grotesque, 606. 

Palace, of king of Fu-sang, 224, 238, 
528 ; of Quetzalcoatl, 615 ; of rulers 
of Mexico, 529 ; of Toltecs, 190 ; of 
the sun — meaning of, 522, 523. 

Palaf ox, account of Indian courtships, 
60. 

Palanquin, only conveyance in Japan, 
480. 

Palenque, meaning of name, 598 ; its 
situation, 200; tribe in its neigh- 
bourhood, 111 ; ruins at, 56, 95 ; their 
Buddhistic character, 127, 134, 602 ; 
Buddhist paintings at, 199, 606 ; in- 
scriptions at, 421 ; tablet at, 591, 
592 ; date of construction, 199, 598 ; 
winged globe at, 130; analogy of 
civilization at, with that of Mexico, 
362 ; the elephant's head at, 201, 
607, 608. 

Pali, its peculiarities, 6. 

Palibothra, foot-prints at, 554. 

Pan, definition of, 419. 

Panama, pearl-fishery near, 76 ; route 
to, from San Francisco, 361 ; Albi- 
nos near, 506. 

Pancha pra patha, five divine feet, 
554. 

PaneJia-sil, Buddhist commandments, 
567. 

P'Ang-kiu, a small island, 243. 

P'Xng-lai, its situation, 252 ; an ex- 
pedition to, 251, 633 ; a place where 
treasure is kept, 252 ; a place in 
Shan-tung, 241 ; a name for fairy- 
land, 240. 
■ Panuco, Quetzalcoatl at, 542. 

Papas, or sacrificing priests, 581. 

Papaloyo tilmatli, a mantle, 474. 

Papantla, monuments of, 363. 

Paper, of Fu-sang, 268 ; invention of, 
624, 638 ; description of Aztec, 393 
made from agave fiber, 98, 384, 392 
or from bark of a tree, 167, 194 
how made in China, 241 ; used to 
adorn temples, 590 ; and idols, 386. 

Paper-mulberry, confounded with hi- 
biscus, 46, 110; used for making 
paper, 47 ; not the fu-sang tree, 117. 
See, also, Broussonetia. 

Papuans, called Chu-shu, 84. 

Papula corimda, said to be the fu- 
sang, 64. 

Papyrus, paper made from, 393. 

Paradise, described by Lily, 454; of 
the Mexicans, 459. 



Paragaha juice, used for mixing stuc- 
co, 605. 

Paraguay, tales of Amazons in, 489 ; 
tradition in, 562. 

Paravey, Chevalier de, America named 
Fu-sang, 49 ; references to articles 
by, 60, 63 ; his troubles, 64 ; New 
Proofs, 66 ; his researches preceded 
those of others, 67; Appendix A, 
Buddhism in America, 71 ; Appen- 
dix B, 73 ; Appendix C, 75 ; Refu- 
tation of M. Jomard's Opinion, 76. 

Paris, Corean records taken to, 528 ; 
Ethnographical Museum at, 543, 
595. 

Parras, grapes at, 415, 416. 

Parvati, figure of, 136. 

Patagonians, always on horseback, 70 ; 
giants, 455. 

Patched garments of Buddhist priests, 
553. 

PatoUi, a Mexican game, 620, 

Paidoumia impericdis, the T'uNG-tree, 
176, 235, 387. 

Pausanias, reference to, 55. 

Pay, definition of, 562. 

Payes, South American sorcerers, 562. 

Pay Zume. See Tume. 

Pe-hai, the North Sea, 87. 

Pe-ti. See Northern Barbarians. 

Pe-tsi (or Piak-sai), a kingdom of 
Corea, 47, 62 ; intercourse with Ja- 
pan, 626-629, 635. 

Pe-y, author of the Shan ITai King, 
670, 677 ; minister of Shun, 671. 

Peaceable nature of Toltecs, 420. 

Peaches, of Fu-sang, 41, 211 ; fruits 
so called by Chinese, 415. 

Pears, red, said to be fruit of the fu- 
sang, 211. 266, 288, 393; doubt on 
subject, 395 ; reason for statement, 
449 ; identified as prickly-pears, 
394 ; none borne by mulberry-trees, 
164; persimmons may be meant, 
235. 

Pearls, art of fishing for, 76 ; found 
in pigs, 646. 

Peccaries, called hogs, 115; said to 
have navel on back, 454. 

Pegu, temples of, 62. 

P'ei, meaning of, 462. 

Pei, a sign of the plural, 481. 

Pei-wXn Yin Fu, a lexicon. 236. 

Pelicans, description of, 650; borne 
on bows of boats, 169. 

Pen-ts'ao, the Herbal of Ciiin-nong, 
674. 

Pen-tsao-kang-mouh, a book, 1 10. 

Penances of Buddhists, 126, 583. 



INDEX. 



777 



PeBasca Blanea, estufas at, 436. 
Penshinish Bay, 86, 89. 
Perez, M. Jose, memoir by, 104. 
Perouse, strait of, 46. 
Persea gratissima, 587. 
Persecution of Buddhism, 5, 446, 447. 
Persepolis, columns at, 129. 
Persia, visited by Buddhists, 5; its 
distance from China, 54 ; the home 
of the hibiscus, 57 ; the four ages 
of, 158. 
Persimmons, described as red pears, 

235. 
Peruvians, civilized by Asiatic visit- 
ors, 36 ; possibly by Buddhists, 62, 
74 ; Vishnuism in religion of, 546 ; 
analogy of their civilization to that 
of Fu-sang, 209 ; and that of IMexi- 
00, 566 ; pyramids of, 565 ; offerings 
to their gods, 598 ; did not distin- 
guish years by colours, 234 ; tradi- 
tions of, 563, 564; cycle used by, 
194 ; beasts of burden of, 170 ; sus- 
pension-bridges, 618; copper, 58; 
skulls of, 68. 
Peruvian language, resemblance of, to 

Malay, 68. 
Peter and Paul's Haven, 87. 
Petroleum in Mexico, 533. 
Petty, a word affixed to titles, 412. 
Philippine Islands, voyages of their 
people, 36; Country of "Women 
situated near, 244 ; Chinese knowl- 
edge of, 405, 682 ; Fu-sang situated 
in, 642, 682 ; custom of blackening 
teeth in, 682. 
Philostratus, quotations from, 58, 69. 
Phocaceans, Chinese descriptions of, 

679. 
PhcEnicians, acquainted with Atlan- 
tis, 56 ; their purple dye, 76. 
Phonetics, portions of Chinese char- 
acters, 337 ; can not be inter- 
changed, 338; characters possibly 
used as, 481. 
Pi-k'iu (or BhiksMi, q. v.), 440. 
Pi Mi Hu, a Japanese empress, 626, 

632. 
Pi-MU-Ti Hill, 661. 
Pi-pi, a species of animal, 650. 
Piaches, South American sorcerers, 

562. 
PiAX-Y-TiEN, or Chinese Geography 
of Foreign Nations, 52, 58, 64, 69, 
75. 
Picietl, a species of tobacco, 509. 
Picture-writing of the Mexicans, 421. 
Pictured People. ^ee " Marked 
Bodies." 



PiEN-TEU, or bamboo vases, 631, 
Pigs, animals resembling, 646; hav- 
ing tusks, 655. 
Pih-Yang River, 652. 
Pillars, carved, in front of houses, 351. 
Pilpatoe, a Mexican general, 412. 
Pindapatika, definition of, 441. 
PiNG-i, the god of rain, 660. 
PiNG-NGAN, a Corean province, 43. 
PiNG-YANG, a Corean city, 43, 65. 
Pintado, estufas at, 436. 
Pipes carved in shape of elephants, 609. 
Pipiles, language of, 365; mourning 

customs of, 466. 
Pisang, the Malay name of the banana, 

58, 405, 682. 
Pita, cloth woven from fiber of, 392. 
Place-names, proof afforded by, 366. 
Plan of this work, 13. 
Plan Carpin, errors made by, 33. 
Planks, used in making mud walls, 

419 ; houses built of, 420. 
Plants, Country of, 663. 
Plantain, the fu-sang tree, 642, 682. 

See, also. Banana. 
Plaster used on pyramids and walls, 

605. 
Platforms upon pyramids, 600. 
Plato, his account of Atlantis, 58. 
Pliny, marvelous tales of, 450, 494. 
Plums, in America, 116. 
Plumes, an American ornament, 199. 
Plumed-serpent, Quetzalcoatl, 548. 
Plural, Chinese signs of, 481. 
Po-ssE, or Persia, 54. 
Po-WE-cHi, or Fabulous Encyclopae- 
dia, 674, 677. 
Po-YANG, home of Ma Twan-lin, 232. 
Po-YANG, a disciple of Confucius, 672. 
Poem regarding native of Fu-sang, 

254. 
PoH-SHU-TSz', expedition of, 657. 
Point Barrow, 245. 346, 347. 
Poisonous insects in Japan, 681. 
Po-Lo, temple of, near Canton, 254. 
Polo, Marco, a contemporary of Ma 
TwAN-LiN, 231 ; incredulity regard- 
ing, 451 ; errors in his accounts, 33, 
105 ; his account of Amazons, 244. 
Polygamy, 620, 632. 
Polytheistic worship of Mexico, 157. 
Pralayas of the Hindoos, 154. 
Pratyeka Buddhas, 485. 
Prayers, not addressed to images, 312 ; 

of Mexican priests, 581. 
Presents from Fu-sang, 223, 237, 238, 

520. 
Preserves made from prickly-pears, 
395. 



778 



INDEX. 



Presiding Spirits, Country of, G63, 

680. 
Prester John, fables regarding, 94. 
Prickly-pears, native to America, 77 ; 

description of, 395 ; identified as the 

red pears of Fu-sang, 394; Chinese 

term for, 401. 
Prickly-poppy, said to be the fu-sang, 

64. 
Priests of Mexico, 198; called "tla- 

mas," 65 ; welcomed by music, 424. 
Primitives. JSee Phonetics. 
Printing, invention of, in China, 449. 
Prisons, of Fu-sang, 270, 457; of 

Mexico, 459 ; of Japan, 164 ; future 

punishment, 196. 
Proboscis, representations of, 614. 
Procyon, a star, 147. 
Proper names, in Chinese, 257. 
Prophecies of coming of Spaniards, 

551. 
Ptolemy, absurd stories of, 146, 487. 
Pu-Mi, a place near Japan, 634. 
Pu-t'ao, definition of, 414. 
Puebla, dress of priests of, 581. 
PuH-Niu, adventures of, 665. 
PuH-Ts'AN Mountain, 645. 
Pulo Condor Island, 253. 
Pulque. See Agave. 
Pun-ts'ao, a Chinese book, 175, 176. 
Punctuation, not used by Chinese, 

257, 353. 
P'uNG-LAi. See P'Ing-lai. 
Punishment of crime, 357, 437, 464, 

465. 
Purgatory, Chinese term for, 459. 
Pygmies, account of, 494, 496, 662. 
Pyramids of Asia, 601, 605 ; of Mexi- 
co, 597, 605 ; reseralslance between 

them, 61, 96, 605 ; of Peru, 565. 

Q 

Quadrumana, described as pygmies, 

494. aSVc, also, Monkeys. 
Quails, kept by Mexicans, 430. 
Quaking Mountain, 665. 
Quaquaquiltin, or " Herb-eaters," 575, 

580. 
Qnaqui Tonatiuh, sunset, 476. 
Quartz crystals, 355, 646, 649. 650. 
Quatu-zaca, a person so called, 74. 
Quatihcalli, a Mexican prison, 459. 
Quauhtemotzin, high-priest, 588. 
QumMla, or mountains, 254. 
QuauMlepafli, a plant, 532. 
Quauhxicalco, a temple, 467. 
Quauhyetl, a species of tobacco, 509. 
Queen Charlotte's Islands, 102, 344. 



Quepopan, a ward of Mexico, 370. 

Querechos, vines found in country of, 
116. 

Quetzal feathers on cap of Quetzal- 
coatl, 543. 

Quetzalcoatl, derivation of name, 548 ; 
title bestowed upon, 417; said to 
have come from the east, 197 ; must 
have come from Asia, 143 ; a Bud- 
dhist priest, 162, 543,544; resem- 
blance to Buddha, 112 ; doctrines 
of, 547 ; penances taught by, 544 ; 
temperance taught by, 547; arts 
taught by, 547; gentle nature of 
his religion, 575 ; description of, 
198, 542; an image of, 543, 595; 
monasteries founded by, 575 ; edi- 
fices attributed to, 537; circular 
temples of, 604 ; palace of, 529, 615 ; 
contention with Tezcatlipoca, 575 ; 
the cause of a war, 542 ; confusion 
between, and Wixipecocha, 541 ; 
promise to return, 197 ; belief there- 
in, 547 ; traditions regarding, 197 ; 

. late additions thereto, 549 ; survival 
of his doctrines, 575 ; tribes called 
his children, 575 ; disciples in Peru, 
566 ; foot-prints of, 553 ; represent- 
ed as a bird, 198 ; thought to be 
mythical, 198; not mythical, 541; 
a god, 197. 

QueizalicMli, a species of agave, 
392. 

QuetzaUi, definition of, 548. 

Queues, introduction of, in China, 
498. 

Quiches, sacred book of, 546; belief 
of, 494 ; music played before king 
of, 423. 

Quiehua language, 68, 111. 

Quicksilver, called " water-silver," 
354; absurdities involved in this 
translation, 356 ; Chinese character 
for, 355 ; a friable earth mistaken 
for, 22 ; in a tomb, 245. 

Quilti, a town in Cihuatlan, 492. 

Quilted-cotton armour, 618. 

Quivera, said to have been founded 
by Mexicans, 32; vessels wrecked 
near, 31 ; vines found in, 116 ; bisons 
found in, 33, 115; horns used as 
vessels in, 430. 

R 

R, suppressed in Pali, 6 : in languages 

of American tribes, 157. 
Rabbits, 225, 430, 534. 
Raccoon, food of, 512. 



INDEX. 



779 



Radicals, a part of Chinese charac- 
ters, 337. 

Ragu, an imaginary planet, 72. 

Rain, in Kamtchatka, 90 ; in Alaska, 
354 ; omens of, 646, 648, 655. 

Rainbow, as an escutcheon, 210. 

Rainy season in Mexico, 511 ; the 
time of migrations of monkeys, 
498. 

Rama, his conquest of Ceylon, 495. 

Ramusio, map drawn by, 370. 

Rank, indicated by tattooing, 245, 
318, 347, 631; by carved posts, 
352 ; by badges, 606. 

Rats, birds resembling, 644, 651, 654, 
680. 

Ravine of Manifestation of Dawn, 
681. 

Recapitulation of arguments, 684. 

Records of Japanese History, 423. 

Records of Liang Dynasty, 260. 

Records of the Ten Islands, 243. 

Red-skins, or American tribes, 81. 

Reeds or rushes in Mexico, 415. 

Refined Gentlemen, Country of, 657, 
663, 680. 

Reindeer, in both Asia and America, 
35^ 175; in America. 59, 196; in 
Siberia, 32 ; in Kamtchatka, 64, 83, 
89 ; in Canada, 76. 

Relatives of criminals punished, 278, 
464. 

Religion, in America and Asia, 706 ; 
in Alaska. 6 ; in Mexico, 158, 198, 
574. 

Remedies used by Aztecs, 509. 

Remusat, translated account of Fu- 
sang, 67. 

'Rh-ya, or " Ready Guide," a Chinese 
book, 383, 387. 389. 644, 672. 

Rhode Island, described by North- 
men, 452. 

Ri, Japanese pronunciation of Li, 
332. 

Ribera, travels of, in Paraquay, 489. 

Ribero, Diego de, map drawn by, 370. 

Ric, title of Gothic kings, 60. 

Rio Janeiro, cochineal insects from, 
76. 

Rishis, hermits of the Ganges, 544. 

Roc, Marco Polo's account of the. 451. 

Rocky Mountain sheep, horns of, 430. 

Roman Catholicism, affected by Bud- 
dhism, 570 ; its resemljlances there- 
to, 568 : and to Aztec religion, 585. 

Roman Empire, Chinese knowledge 
of, 57, 662. 

Rosaries, used by Buddhists, 569. 

Rose of China. See Hibiscus. 



Rosny, M. de, 107, 183, 265, 030. 
Rossel, Admiral de, 68, 71. 
Roucoii, used by Mexicans, 471. 
Royal Academy, memoirs of, 13. 
Roze, Admiral, visit to Kangwha, 

528. 
Rualo, lake, 538. 
Rubruquis, errors of, 33. 
Rushes in Pu-sang, 212. 
Russia, Chinese transcription of, 404 ; 

Buddhism in, 5. 
Russians, explorations by, of Amoor 

valley, 187 ; and coast of America, 

22. 
Rutting-season, of monkeys, 498. 

S 

Sables of Pu-sang, 225, 239, 534. 

Sacaa, or priests, 579. 

Sacapulas, a Mexican town, 588. 

Sacatecoluca, a Mexican town, 588. 

Sacatl, meaning of, 587. 

Saco, a Mexican town, 588. 

Sacrifices, 647, 651, 653; prohibited 
by Buddhism, 126. 

Sae kino murazi, images brought by, 
628. 

Sagas, accounts of America, 92. 

Sage-brush, 510, 511, 513. 

Saghalien, identified as Pu-sang, 179, 
242; as Great Han, 44, 180; not 
Great Han, 52. 

Sat, or capuchin monkey, 498. 

Saint Bartholomew, in America, 199, 
561. 

Saint Christopher, music at, 424. 

Saint Thomas, in America, 199, 550, 
561, 563, 564, 568. 

Sakj-a, or Sakya Muni, an appellation 
of Buddha (q. v.), 2 ; its meaning, 
2 ; Chinese transcription of, 77 ; his 
conception, 97 ; early disciples, 582 ; 
interment, 96; name contained in 
various Mexican place-names, 77, 
587 ; in Quatuzaca, 74 ; and Chaac- 
mol, 606. 

Salamander, myth regarding, 533. 

Salt, of China and Mexico, 508 ; Chi- 
nese character for, 507. 

Salt Lake City, Country of "Women, 
177. 

Salt-plant, 30, 308, 507. 

Salt-weed, of Arizona, 509. 

Salvador, Aztec language in, 367; 
dress of priests of, 472. 

Samarcand, said to be Ki-Pix, 108, 
123, 212, 213, 445, 446; situation 
of, 124 ; a center of Buddhism, 193 ; 



780 



INDEX. 



missionaries from, 38, 136; com- 
merce with China, 446. 

Samoyedes, customs of, 34. 

San-kan, pays tribute to Japan, 637. 

San-ma-(ell-han. See Samarcand. 

San-sai-dzou-ye, an encyclopaedia, 
213. 

San-sien-shan, the Three Fairy Hills, 
241. 

San Andreas Chachicomula, 605. 

San Bias, Fu-sang near, 95. 

San Domingo, estufa at, 436. 

San Felipe, bones of bisons at, 438. 

San Francisco, Fu-sang near, 68, 177; 
east of center of United States, 
361 ; century-plant in, 386. 

San Juan Teotihuacan, 598. 

San Lorenzo, river of, 493. 

Sand River, 649 ; and Marsh, 650. 

Sand, shifting, meaning of, 648. 

Sandwich Islands, 68, 101, 156, 167. 

Sang, pronunciation of, 400, 407. 

Sanga, the Buddhist priesthood, 458, 
485. 

Sanga Pala, a Buddhist priest, 440. 

Sanger, strait of, 85. 

Sanghaii, a Buddhist robe, 553. 

Sanskrit, Chinese transcriptions from, 
253, 404, 413, 440 ; its use in suu- 
myths, 343. 

Santa Rita del Cobre, 432. 

Santarem, Viscount of, 67. 

Sd-to-ivats, or horses, 483. 

Satyrs, description of, 454. 

Scandinavians, discoverers of Vinland, 
49, 58, 63, 311. 

Schotter, Nicholas, map of, 371. 

Scorched Pygmy People, 663. 

Scythia, the home of Amazons, 487. 

Sea, of Varnish, 335, 339 ; of MUk, 
335. 

Sea-calves, cries of, 679. 

Sea-cattle, or sea-otters, 679. 

Sea-lions, 353, 679. 

Sea-serpent, story of Fu-sang com- 
pared to, 303. 

Sea-shells, as musical instruments, 
433. 

Seals, given by Chinese emperor, 636, 
633. 

Seals, Chinese description of, 90, 679. 

Seated figure at Uxmal, 594. 

Sen Sin, a Buddhist nun, 629. 

Senegal, people of, 38. 

Seng-kia-li, a Buddhist robe, 553. 

Seng-ti, the lion-headed couch, 593. 

Sepulchers, pyramids used as, 599, 
601. 

Serpents, worshiped in Mexico, 157, 



530 ; of Fu-sang. 335, 339, 530, 531 ; 
of Country of Women, 539 ; taken 
as husbands, 334 ; about idols, 613 ; 
as ear-ornaments, 657, 660, 665, 
680 ; tribes so called. 111 ; Quetzal- 
coatl called the plumed, 548; 
winged, 451, 454 ; two-headed, 455 ; 
eight-headed, 678. 

Sha, interchanged with Ka, 414. 

Shajrat ul Atrak, or Genealogical 
Tree, 83. 

Sha-mo (Desert of Gobi, q. v.), 33. 

Shaman, derivation of word, 5, 74; 
belief that it is an American word, 
6; may have given rise to title 
"Amanam," 74; arts of, in Kam- 
tchatka, 91 ; in Central Asia, 186. 

Shan, meaning of, 644. 

ShXn, meaning of, 444. 

Shan-ching, capital of Japan, 31. 

Shan Hai King, or Chinese " Classic 
of Mountains and Seas," references 
to, 17, 47, 56, 318; its references 
to Fu-sang, 183 ; description of the 
leaves, 387; description of Ainos, 
84; quotations from, 349, 250; its 
fabulous accounts, 181 ; reasons for 
translating, 643; translation of 
parts of, 643 ; preface, 643 ; fourth 
book, 644; ninth book, 656; four- 
teenth book, 661 ; comments upon 
it, 669 ; its divisions, 669, 677 ; in- 
terpolations, 677; gaps in, 677; age 
of, 672 ; its authorship, 671-673 ; a 
compilation, 680 ; not thought wor- 
thy of credit, 671-676; opinion 
rapidly changing, 678. 

ShXn-pan, a species of mussel, 648. 

Shan-tseh, or the Deep Marsh, 653. 

Shan-tung, wild tribes in, 241. 

Shao-hai, the Little Sea, 87. 

Shao-Hao, the emperor, 661. 

Shang dynasty, reign of, 672. 

Shaving, by Buddhist priests, 567. 

She-ooei, Tartarian tribes, 34, 25, 
216. 

She-pi's Body, a god, 656, 657. 

Sheep, in Great Han, 215, 346 ; not 
raised in Japan, 178; gods with 
horns of, 653 ; American animals 
so called, 33, 115; llamas, 115; 
Rocky iMountain sheep, 430 ; vege- 
table, 450 ; metaphoric use of term, 
485. 

Shem, references to, 73, 74. 

Sheu, or cubit length, 331. 

Shi River, 055 ; and Mountain, 654. 

Shi, definition of, 444. 

Shi-cheu-ki, a book, 337. 



INDEX. 



781 



Shi-eul-t'eu-to Kixg, a book, 441. 

Shi-hu Mountain, 651. 

Shi Hwang-ti, a Chinese emperor, 
251, 626. 

Shi-kia, or Sdkya, 77. 

Shi Tao-ax, travels of, 10. 

Shi-we, See She-goei. 

Shifting Sand, meaning of, 648. 

Shih, meaning of, 327, 894. 

Shih River, 644, 647, 654. 

Shih Chau Ki, 236. 

Shix I King, 240, 250. 

Shin Yi Tien, 671. 

Shixg ^Mountain, 667. 

■STiinje, the Lord of the Dead, 614. 

Ship^vrecks, of Chinese vessels on a 
Countiy of Women, 36, 106, 213, 
251, 515; of Chinese emperor Ti- 
pux, 34; of an expedition to Japan, 
252; of Tsix-XGAN men, 310; at 
Wu-KiEX, 660 ; on American coast, 
122, 233; on coast of British Co- 
lumbia, 184; of California, 101; of 
Quivera, 31 ; of Japanese junks, 
156 ; on Queen Charlotte's Islands, 
102; onOahu, 101. 

Shin Shing, a Japanese emperor, 624, 
632. 

Sho-tuax, a Chinese lord, 222. 

ShrdwaJcns, a class of Buddhists, 485. 

Shu, a division of China, 627. 

Shu-hai, Journev of, 658. 

Shu Kixg, references to. 83. 212. 

Shui Kixg, or Book of the Waters, 674 

Shux, an emperor, 666 ; ministers of, 
670, 671. 

Shy-wei. countiy of, 45, 137. See, 
also, She-goei. 

Si-KOKK, an island of .Japan, 249. 

Si-xgax, Chinese capital, 54, 82, 87, 
446. 

Siara, Buddhism in, 5; pagodas of, 
62; similar to Mexican temples, 
112; altars of, 133; manuscripts of, 
618; disV)elief in ice by king of, 
354 ; term for Gautama in, 558. 

SiAXG Mountain. 651. 

Siao-chixg, the less translation, 484. 

SiAO-TEU, or "little beans," 314, 517. 

Siberia, Chinese transcription of, 404; 
inhabitants of. 216; Buddhism in, 
5 ; sea gradually filling up, 70 ; Led- 
vard's researches in, 112; animals 
of, 32; Great Hax situated in, 22, 
178. 

Sibylline books, ages named in, 155. 

Siddharfa. name of Buddha, 1. 

Sle-hao, or Chinese absinthe, 30, 308, 
507. 



Siebold, translation of, 625. 

Sierra Nevada Mountains, 532. 

Silk, use of, by American tribes, 241 
of Fu-sang,223, 224, 238, 520, 685 
could have come from Mexico, 705 
vegetable fiber So called, 521. 

Silk-worms of Fu-sang, 48, 56, 223, 
224, 238, 250, 524; of Japan, 631. 

Silver, in Fu-sang, 288, 431 ; in Mex- 
ico, 431 ; in Japan, 629, 636, 640. 

Simson, Theos., letter from, 173. 

Six-FU, expedition of, to P'Ixg-lai, 
633. See, also, Siu-FU. 

Six-LO, or Sinra, a province of Corea, 
625-628. 

Sinapis, fu-sang leaves resemble, 387. 

Siiigoun, a Japanese title, 638. 

Sipangu, Marco Polo's name for Ja- 
pan, 549. 

Sisal hemp, the silk of Fu-sang, 521. 

Sitka, climate of, 122; carved posts 
in, 352. 

Siu-FU, a physician, 251 ; deified by 
the Japanese, 252. 

Siva, representations of, 61, 71 ; the 
cross a monogram of, 552 ; wives of, 
546. 

Sivaism, in Thibet and Java, 545; 
cruel rites of, 162; mixed with 
Buddhism, 72, 124, 126. 

Skrellings, or Esquimaux, 81, 453. 

Skulls of American races, 81 ; in 
mounds, 598 ; on idols, 612. 

Slave-children of Fu-sang, 274, 457, 
462. 

Slave Indians, tattooing of, 346. 

Slavery, among the Mexicans, 462; 
relatives of criminals reduced to, 
465, 632. 

Sloan, Hans, collection of, 29. 

Smusdnika, definition of, 442. 

Smoking Mountain, 225, 531. 

Snails, eaten by monkeys, 512. 

Snow, described as feathers, 450. 

Snowy Range, 532. 

So-TiEX, a Buddhist priest, 6.35. 

Sogamozo, monuments of, 143. 

Sogano Mumako, temple of, 628, 
629, 

Somona, an epithet of Buddha, 558. 

Sonora, vines in, 415; no bisons in, 
427 ; metals in, 4;32. 

Sounds of Chinese characters, 234. 

Soura, a fabulous fish, 146. 

South, the leading point of the com- 
pass, 615 ; Mexican paradise in, 461. 

South America, traditions of, 560; 
non-int€rcourse with Mexico, 556. 

Soy, derivation of the word, 508. 



782 



INDEX. 



Spanberg, Capt., on coast of Japan, 
23. 

Spain, conquered by Arabs, 37 ; place- 
names of, 366. 

Spaniards welcomed by music, 433, 
434. 

Spinel, in Alaska, 356. 

Spirits, worshiped in Country of Wom- 
en, 335 ; images of, Avorshiped, 313 ; 
of the earth, and sun, 671. 

"Spring and Autumn," a book by 
Confucius, 643, 649, 663, 674. 

Springs, numerous in Mexico, 534. 

Sprouts, of endogenous plants, 389; 
of currant-bushes, 511. See, also. 
Bamboo-sprouts. 

Squirrels, quadrumana compared to, 
495. 

Sramana, an epithet of Buddha, 558 ; 
and his priests, 5 ; from which word 
" shaman " has come, 74. 

Sravana, or foot-prints of Vishnu, 
153. 

Sripcida, or foot-prints of Buddha, 553. 

SsE-Ki, a Chinese book, 673. 

SsE-MA-CHiNG, book of, 673. 

SsE-MA-KUANG, a Chinese author, 671. 

SsE-MA-TS-'iEN, a Chinese author, 113, 
673. 

Stairs, Chinese transcription of, 404. 

Stanton, Sir George, map of, 50. 

Statuary of Buddhists, 606. 

Statue of a man from Fu-sang, 254. 

Statues upon pyramids, 600. 

" Stems," the ten Chinese, 334. 

Stennis, monoliths of, 601. 

Sferculia pi anfani folia, 176. 

Stone, worked by Americans, 151 ; in- 
terred with the dead, 159, 617; a 
tree of, 354, 416. 

Stonehenge, monoliths of, 601. 

Stucco, on pyramids, 599, 605; and 
temples, 606. 

Su, meaning of, 400. 

Si; FuH, expedition of, 343. 

Su Ki-Yu, governor of Fuh-kien, 242. 

Sua. See Bochica. 

Substantive verbs in Chinese, 444. 

Suddhodana, father of Buddha, 1. 

Suetoi-noss, a Kamtchatkan cape, 26. 

Sugar extracted from century-plant, 
386. 

Sugar-cane, called P'u-t'ao, 415. 

SuH-CHU Mountain, 644. 

Suma. See Tuma. 

Sumatra, 36, 245, 396, 681. 

Sun, temple of the, 599 ; spirits of the, 
671 ; children named after, 350. 

Suns, the ten, 659. 



Sun-bird, the shooting of, 659. 

Sun-house, the Aztec paradise, 459. 

Sunless Mountain, 644. 

Sun-myth, Fu-sang not a, 336, 341. 

Sunrise, place of, 350, 353, 643, 661, 
663, 664, 667; valley of, 343 ; com- 
mencement of day with, 476. 

Sunset, Mexican name for, 476. 

Sun's Palace, meaning of, 533. 

Sung, a Chinese dynasty, 40. 

SuNG-YUN, his journey' to India, 10, 
444. 

Suruga, a Japanese province, 639, 636. 

Survival of primitive customs, 363. 

Surya, a god of India, 153. 

Suspension-bridges, 618, 

Swan, Chinese description of, 680. 

Swastika, a species of cross, 553. 

Sweat-house. See Estufa. 

Sweden, Buddhism in, 5. 

Sweeping the paths of monarehs, 433, 
617. 

Sweet-herb, a species of sage, 513. 

Swine, in Kamtchatka, 89, 90; pec- 
caries so called, 115; name be- 
stowed on foreigners, 81. 

Swords, worn by Japanese, 681 ; rep- 
resentation of curved, in Mexico, 
606. 

Sz* I Kao, or Researches into the 
Four Frontiers, 333. 

Sz'-MA Tsien's description of a tomb, 
345. 



Ta, definition of, 340. 
Ta-ching, the great translation, 484. 
Ta-fu, a Japanese embassador, 633. 
Ta-han. See Han, Great. 
Ta-mo, a Siberian tribe, 316. 
Ta-mo, a Buddhist, 440. 
Ta-o Mountain, 664. 
Ta-t'ung-kiang, a river. 43. 
Ta-tsin, the Roman empire, 57, 663. 
Taber, photograph by Mr., 386. 
Table or altar at Palenque, 133. 
Tacitus, fables related by, 56, 678. 
Tadpoles, Chinese names of, 644. 
Taen§as of Louisiana, 31, 106. 
Tagala language. 111. 
Tagul, Chinese transcription of, 404. 
Tahuas, worship of serpents by, 530. 
Tai, a Chinese officer, 660. 
T'Ai Mountain, 646, 656, 667. 
Tai-chin-tong-wang-fu, a god, 319. 
Tai-fang, route from, to China, 630, 

634, 635. 
Tai-kan. See Han, Great. 
T'Ai-TSUNG Mountain, 646. 



INDEX. 



783 



T'ai-wan. See Formosa. 

Tails, men with, 451, 495 ; of monk- 
eys, 498. 

Taraoi, Tamu, Tume, or Zume, 562. 

T'AN, meaning of, 601. 

Tan-cheu, a place near Japan, 633. 

Tang, dynasty, 85, 91. 

T'ang Ravine, 658. 

T'ang-ku, or Warm Springs Valley, 
56, 250. 

Tang-k'ang, a species of wild pig, 655. 

Tangaxoan, a Mexican chief, 423, 491. 

Tanner, a map by Mr., 429. 

Tanzy, used to sweeten meat, 513, 

TAO,definitionof, 516. 

Tao-szu, expedition of, 252. 

Taoists, authors of the Shan Hai 
King, 670, 677. 

Taos, estufas at, 436. 

Tapia, or adobe, 419. 

Tapir, references to, 201, 483, 608. 

Taraikai. See Saghalien. 

Tarapaca, tradition regarding, 565. 

Tartars, Chinese accounts of, 23, 82 ; 
history of, 14 ; relationship be- 
tween, 82 ; resemblance to Ameri- 
can tribes, 81 ; in customs, 143 ; 
and armour, 420, 618; zodiac of, 
144, 148, 149 ; years of cycles, 99, 
470; commencement of year, 499; 
dialects of. 111 ; lack of beard, 35. 

Tartary, hares of, 147 ; horses of, 32 ; 
American women met in, 35 ; dress 
of priests in, 567 ; characters of, in 
Canada, 112. 

Tatsima Mori, travels of, 625. 

Tattooing, in Eastern Asia, 245 ; by 
Ainos, 84, 186 ; in Japan, 631 ; by 
people of the land of "Marked 
Bodies," 245, 318 ; of Aleuts, Alas- 
kans, and American tribes, 92, 345, 
346 ; as a mark of rank, 245, 347. 

Tau, definition of, 644. 

Taxco, metals from, 432. 

Taxes, none in Fu-sang, 431. 

Tai/, definition of, 579, 587. 

Taysacoa, a high-priest, 519, 540, 587. 

Tchuktchi, 83, 86, 87. 

Tcho-long, the " Luminous Dragon," 
532. 

Teca, or fecatl, definition of, 410. 

Tecali, or gypsum, 529. 

Teccizijo tilmatli, a mantle, 473. 

Techichi, an animal, 430. 

Tecpatl, a Mexican sign, 150, 151. 

Tecuhtli, a Mexican title, 411. 

Tehuantepec, 538, 605. 

Teilpilojan, a Mexican prison, 459. 

Temples, of Hindostan, 006 ; of Ja- 



pan, 629; of the Sun and Moon, 599 ; 
on pyramids, 601 ; at Palenque, 
598, 606 ; of Quetzalcoatl, 615 ; dec- 
orations of, 590, 605, 615 ; age at 
which children are brought to, 463. 

Ten suns, accounts of, 163, 182, 250, 
659, 682. 

TenextU, or Mexican lime, 605. 

Te7iochtitlan, or Mexico, 368, 375. 

TeoamoxtU, the " divine book," 559. 

Teocallis, or temples, 112, 566, 599. 

Teo-cipactli, the Mexican Noah, 146. 

Teo-Culhuacan, a city, 491. 

Teopan, a ward of Mexico, 369. 

Teo-pixqui, or Aztec priests, 578. 

Teotihuacan, a town, 363, 599. 

Teofl, resemblance of, to " Dens" 589. 

Teoyaomiqui, an Aztec god, 459, 546, 
613. 

Tetzontli, a species of stone, 605. 

Teuan, or tetuan, definition of, 410. 

Teule, TeuU, or TeuhfU, 412. 

Teutile, a Mexican general, 411. 

Texas, fossils in, 428 ; vines in, 415. 

Teyas, vines in country of, 116. 

Tezcacalli, or House of Mirrors, 529. 

Tezcatlipoca, a god, 526, 575, 614. 

Tezcuco, punishment of criminals in, 
437; path swejDt before kings of, 
617. 

Tharic, leader of the Arabs, 37. 

Thatches of agave leaves, 384. 

Theft, punishment of, 437. 

Tliemistitan, the City of Mexico, 
370. 

TJien-halang, or Siamese altars, 133, 

Theory, explaining Mexican civiliza- 
tion, 622 ; by which account of Fu- 
sang must be explained, 64 ; which 
has fewest difficulties, 342, 358 ; 
facts perverted for, 104. 

Thevenot, collections of, 60. 

Thibet, visited by Buddhists, 8 ; re- 
ligion of, 97, 545 ; term for Gau- 
tama in, 558 ; priests of. 583 ; their 
dress, 567, 569 ; marriages, 585 ; 
use of ci'osses in, 552 ; walls of tem- 
ples of, 615 ; god Shinje of, 614 ; 
zodiac of, 144, 149 ; cycles of. 143, 
470 ; four ages of, 158 ; resemblance 
of institutions of, to those of Mexi- 
co, 143, 154, 155. 

Thistle, century-plant so called, 398. 

Thlinkeets, carved posts of, 352. 

Thorns of agave, 195. 

Thread from fu-sang, 260 ; from fiber 
of agave, 384. 

Three Fairy Hills, 241, 243. 

Three foot-prints of V'ishnu, 152. 



784: 



INDEX. 



" Three vehicles," a Buddhist term, 
484. 

Thunder, the god of, 668. 

Ti-HUNG, ancestor of the White Peo- 
ple, 664. 

Ti-KO, spirits of reign of, 671. 

Ti-PUN, a Chinese emperor, 34. 

Ti-TSiUN, who espoused Hi-ho, 250. 

Ti-TSUN, an emperor, 663, 666. 

Ti-YUH, or Hades, 459. 

T'lAO People, 662. 

T'lAo-YUNG, description of. 646. 

Tides, among the Aleutian Islands, 
340. 

TiEN-KiEN, period so called, 515, 519. 

TiEN-wu, god of the water, 657, 665, 
679. 

Tigers, in zodiacs, 149 ; of Corea and 
Jesso, 681 ; gentle, 657, 663. 

Tilantengo, high-priest of, 579. 

Tiles, in Mexico and China, 155. 

Time, divisions of, 470, 475, 476; 
changes occasioned by, 335. 

Tin, known to Aztecs, 431 ; used as 
medium of exchange, 98. 

Ting, confused with Hiang, 502. 

Tingry, Lake, 218. 

Tititl, the month of " hard times," 
512 

Titles', of Fu-sang, 208, 234, 280, 409, 
411, 413 ; of Mexico, 411, 413 ; of 
Japan, 640 ; of several nations, 60. 

Tizatlahi, a species of stone, 471. 

Tla, definition of, 413. 

Tlaca - tecuhtli, Montezuma's title, 
410. 

Tlaliac, a mineral, 471. 

Tlalocan, the Aztec paradise, 460. 

TIalxicco, Mictlantecutli's temple, 461. 

Tlama, priests or " medicine-men," 
65, 589. 

Tlamacazqxi, or deacons, 575 ; du- 
ties of, 577, 581 ; dress of, 580. 

Tlanamiqui, definition of, 463. 

Tlascala, punishment of a thief at, 
437 ; entrance of Cortez, 423 ; dress 
of priests of, 581 ; names for Hui- 
tzilopochtli at, 381. 

Tlasealans, emigrants from north, 
149 ; called " women," 489. 

Tlatelulco part of Mexico, 369. 

Tlatoani, or 

Tlatoca, a Mexican title, 413. 

TlepatH, a Mexican plant, 532. 

To, definition of, 414. 

To-p'u-T'Ao, 41, 211, 288; said to be 
grapes, 58, 65 ; or tomatoes, 414. 

Tobacco, 97, 569. 

Tollantzinco, the prophet of, 538. 



Toltecs, meaning of name, 96 ; emi- 
grants from north, 143, 149 ; said 
to have come from Japan, 62 ; date 
of their arrival, 96, 363, 364 ; no 
earlier inhabitants known, 363 : in 
Mexico in days of Hwui Shan, 364 
spoke the Aztec language, 365 
colonized the Pacific coast, 365 
their civilization, 190, 363, 365, 
574 ; its preservation, 575 ; their 
peaceable nature, 420 ; offerings to 
their gods, 598 ; writing of, 421 ; 
their " divine book," 96 ; priests, 
581 ; resemblance of religion to 
that of Peru, 566 ; religious wars 
of, 575 ; caused by Quetzalcoati, 
542 ; capital of, 599 ; palaces of 
kings of, 529 ; taught agriculture, 
430. 

Tomatoes, used by Mexicans, 415. 

Tombs, pyramids used as, 599, 601 ; 
homes of priests among, 442. 

Tonapa, tradition regarding, 565. 

Tonatiuh, temple of, 599. 

ToNG-FANG-so, a Chinese author, 219. 

ToNG-HAi, the Eastern Sea, 633. 

ToNG-HOEN-HEU, an emperor, 222. 

ToNG-KiNG, embassy from, 114. 

ToNG-KiNG-FU, a poem, 226. 

Tontli, definition of, 412. 

Topes of Buddhists, 601. 

Topiltzin Ceacatl. See Quetzalcoati. 

Tortures of Mandan Indians, 198. 

Total abstinence, taught by Quetzal- 
coati, 547. 

Totepeuh Nonohualcatl, a chief, 542. 

Totonacas, monastery of, 578. 

Tourmalines, in Alaska, 356. 

Towers, upon pyramids, 600, 602. 

Toys, as symbols, 620. 

Toyon, or chief, 351. 

Traditions, of Aztecs, 362, 536; of 
Guatemala, 608 ; of erection of 
pyramids, 598 ; of trade across the 
Pacific, 169 ; regarding Deluge, 131 ; 
regarding elephant, 611 ; regarding 
Quetzalcoati, 615 ; interpreted in 
different ways, 201. 

Trmchivarika, definition of, 442. 

Transcriptions of foreign words by 
Cliinese, 404, 414. 

Translations, a Buddhist term, 484, 
486. 

Translations from Chinese, reasons 
for, 255 ; principle followed in, 261. 

Transmigration, belief in, 157, 590. 

Travelei's provided with food, 348, 
350. 

Trees, plants so called, 383, 384 ; of 



INDEX. 



785 



stone, 254, 416 ; Buddhist priests to 
sit under, 442 ; Land of Numerous, 
644. 

Tremblers, a tribe so called, 517. 

Tricks of decipherers, 106. 

Tri yana, the " three ears," 485. 

Trumpets, 421, 422, 476. 

Truths, told by Hwui Shan, 358, 686; 
found even in wonderful tales, 338. 

TsAH-YU River, 649. 

TsAi, meaning of, 425, 444. 

Ts'ai-king-chung, inventor of paper, 
638. 

Tsan-Yai, Country of Women near, 
226. 

TsXng Mountain, 667. 

Ts'ang-shAn-wu, a poem, 658, 661, 
663. 

Ts'ANG-Ti River, 654. 

Ts'ao, definition of, 446, 507. 

Ts'ao-chi Mountain, 648. 

Tseu-chi-t'ong-kien, a book, 671. 

TsEU-HiA, a disciple of Confucius, 
672. 

Tsi dynasty, 40, 206, 222, 440. 

TsiN dynasty, 40. 

TsiN-NGAN, situation of, 244; ship- 
wreck of men of, S 10, 515. 

Ti'iN Shi Hwang Ti, an emperor, 
241, 243, 245, 633. 

TsiNG People, 663. 

TsiNG-TsiNG. a species of animal, 653. 

Tso-ssE, a Chinese poet, 674. 

Tsu, a Chinese state, 647. 

Tsu-sima, 43, 630, 634, 636. 

Tsu-su-ga, a poisonous insect, 681. 

Ts'u-TAN River, 647. 

Tsu-TSE-YU, a book, 675. 

Ts'UNG-Ts'UNG, Or six-lcgged dogs, 
644. 

Tsz' rats, 644. 

Tsz'-t'ung Mountain and River, 655. 

Tu Sea, 182. 

Tu-FU Mountain, 649. 

Tu-p'o tribe, 23, 44, 45. 

Tu-YEU, an encyclopfedia by, 675. 

Tu-YU, Geography of, 674. 

Tui-Hai, a place near Japan, 634. 

Tui-LU, a title of Fu-sang, 27, 41, 
280, 411 ; found in Corea, 528. 

Tui-ma-tao, an island, 20. 43. 

Tula, Tulla, or Tulan, 415, 599, 614. 

Tule, or reeds, 415. 

Tuma, tradition regarding, 563. 

Tumuli, of Buddhists, 601; assem- 
blies held in, 276, 434. 

Tuna, or prickly-pear, 394. 

Tung, a son of Turk, 82. 

T'UNG tree, 27, 176, 235, 387. 
50 



Tung Fang-soh, an author, 240. 
TuNG-TUNG, a species of pig, 646. 
Tunguses, 23, 34, 45, 81, 82, 112, 187. 
Tupi-Guaranays, tradition of, 562. 
Turks, 81, 82, 111, 414. 
Turkestan, visited by Buddhists, 8. 
Turkeys, called "hens," 115; kept by 

Mexicans, 430. 
Turtle, varieties of, 670. 
Tusks, elephants lacking, 201, 610. 
Tykoon, a Japanese title, 638. 
Typhon, coupled with Horus, 72. 
' Ts'iNG-WANG, an emperor, 113. 
Tzequil, the attendants of Votan, 558. 
Tzin, meaning of, 588. 

U 

Ubaque, foot-prints in, 560. 

Udonge, a great cloud of blossoms, 
401. 

Uixtocihuatl, a goddess, 508. 

Ulugh Beig, work of, 499. 

Unalaska, 9; meaning of the name, 
34. 

Unalaskans, Esquimaux, 344 ; can not 
understand Aleuts, 344; their na- 
ture, 347 ; tattooing, 345 ; dwellings 
of, 353. 

Unicorn, 145, 451. 

Unipeds, Northmen's account of, 453. 

United States, Chinese name for, 406. 

Unreliability of early Japanese rec- 
ords, 624, 625. 

U2)dsakas, duties of, 561. 

Urcos, statue of Viracocha at, 565. 

Uries, strait of, 22. 

Urtuezez, a tribe in Paraguay, 489. 

Usu-fi-toghe, a Japanese mountain, 
638. 

UttarasangJidti, a Buddhist robe, 553. 

Uxmal, traditions of Indians at, 
598 ; pyramids at, 600 ; " House of 
Monks " at, 594 ; seated figures re- 
sembling Buddha at, 71, 77, 129, 
134, 200, 594 ; figui-e of di-agon at, 
73; elephant's trunk at, 200, 607; 
paintings at, 199. 



V and M interchanged, 408. 
Vaccas, or cows, bisons so called, 115. 
Vadjra atchdrya, or " diamond teach- 
er," 548. 
Valley of Birds, 644. 
Valley of Manifestation of Dawn, 657. 
Valley of Sunrise, 243. 
Variations in texts, 260. 



786 



mDEX. 



Varnish, Scca of, 225, 239, 533, 

Vases of Mexico and Japan, 573. 

Vdthdpcmtari, definition of, 441. 

Vatican, manuscripts of, 152. 

Vegetable-sheep, description of, 450. 

Vegetation characteristic of Mexico, 
510. 

Vehicles, none used by American 
tribes, 481 ; " the Three," a Bud- 
dhist term, 484. 

Velasquez, occupation of Cuba by, 
550. ■ 

Vera Cruz, Gage welcomed at, 424. 

Verbs, Chinese use of substantive, 
444. 

Vermilion fish, G49. 

Victoria "Weekly Colonist, 184. 

Vicunas, used as draught animals, 
170. 

Viharas, religious establishments, 
589. 

Village of the Tower, of the Ghiliaks, 
187. 

Vine, Chinese name for, 41, 414 ; its 
introduction into China, 42, 58, 110 ; 
its Japanese name, 42 ; myth of its 
creation, 47 ; indigenous to Ameri- 
ca, 49, 58, 94, 110, 116, 162, 169, 
211, 212; and found in Mexico, 
415; but not cultivated, 65; said 
not to exist in America, 471 ; but 
to have been brought from Europe, 
416. 

Vinegar, extracted from century- 
plant, 386. ' 

Vinland, reason for its name, 58, 94, ' 
110, 116: discovered by Scandina- 
vians, 63, 162; marvelous details, 
452 ; Fu-sang compared to, 168. 

Vira-Badhra, head-dress of, 135. 

Viracocha, tradition regarding, 565. 

Virginia, animals of, 483. 

Vishnu, a legend regarding, 152; 
head-dress of, 135 ; the cross a 
monogram of, 552 ; worship mixed 
with that of Buddha, 545 ; in the 
religion of Peru, 546. 

Vitim River, Great Han near, 247 

Vivien de Saint-Martin, M.. article 
by, 185 ; reply thereto, 136. 

Volcanoes of Central America, 531. 

Volcanic glass. See Obsidian. 

Votan, a culture-hero, 558 ; land from 
which he came, 549 ; date of visit 
of, 559; brought the tapir, 608; 
his name a possible corruption of 
" Gautama," 558. 

Vows of Aztec priests, 575. 

Vrikshamiilika, definition of, 442. 



W 

Wa-kan-san-sai-dzou-ye, a Japanese 

encyclopa?dia, 107, 108. 
Wa-kokf (or Wa), Japan, 250. 
Wai-chwen, a book, 062. 
Walcknaer, M., reference to, 67, 
Waldeck, drawings of M. de, 56, 61, 

67, 71-73, 77. 
Walls about pyramids, 600. 
Walled cities of Japan, 631, 640. 
Wan-hu, or elks, 651. 
WIn ShIn. See " Marked Bodies." 
"Wang-chong, a Chinese author, 673. 
Wang-shin, a Chinese philosopher, 

627, 637. 
Wang Yung, remarks of, 226. 
War, waged by Mexicans, 190. 
Warm-Springs Valley, 250, 658, 666. 

AS'ee, also, T'ang-ku. 
Washington Territory, dwellings of, 

420. 
Water, destruction of mankind by, 

615 ; its transformation into ice, 

354. 
Water - crystal, quartz - crystals so 

called, 355. 
Water-gems, quartz-crystals and glass 

so called, 355, 646, 649. 
Water-silver, Chinese text regarding, 

322 ; quicksilver so called, 354 ; 

absurdity involved in this transla- 
tion, 356 ; possibly meant for " icy- 
silver," 355 ; a descriptive term for 

ice, 327, 354; reason for its use, 
' 449. 

Weaving, by Mexican women, 474. 
Weeks, of five days, 432. 434, 571; 

Colours connected with davs of, 475. 
Wei, definitions of, 444, 504, 672 ; a 

division of China, 627 ; a dynasty, 

634; Mountain, 663. 
Wei-shi Mountain, 650. 
Wei-yi, definition of, 441. 
Weiser, Conrad, conversation with, 

349. 
Wellingtonia, of California, 219. 
Wen-hien-tong-kao, a book by Ma 

TwAN-LiN, 64, 213, 228, 231. 
Wen-shin. See " Marked Bodies." 
West and East, distance between, 658. 
Whales, feast held over, 347. 
Wheat, in Vinland, 452 ; maize, so 

called, 116. 
Whistles of Mexicans, 422. 
White, indicating a superior nature, 

198. 
White Land, the home of the Nahuas, 

506. 



INDEX. 



787 



White men, in New Mexico, 123 ; tra- 
ditions regarding, 490, 555. 

White People's Country, 664. 

White Woman, a Mexican Mountain, 
507. 

White inhabitants of Country of 
Women, 302. 

White-throated Mexican monkey, 506. 

Wild beasts, criminals left to, 357. 

Williams, Rt. Rev. C. M., letter from, 
181. 

Williams, Prof. S. Wells, " Notices of 
Fu-sang," by, 230; translation of 
account of Fu-sang, 263 ; of Coun- 
try of Women, 303 ; of the land of 
"Marked Bodies," 317; of Great 
Han, 325 ; his knowledge of Chi- 
nese, 356. 

Wind, destruction of mankind by, 
615 ; blowing toward America, 62, 
69 ; of knives, 590. 

Wine, use of, in Japan, 631 ; a fount- 
ain resembling, 225, 533. 

Wine-jar, the tree of the large, 400. 

Winged-globe, found in America, 130. 

Winged-men, myth of, 495. 

Wintun squaws, tattooing of, 347. 

Wisconsin, elephant-mound of, 610. 

Witches, abandoned to wild beasts, 
357. 

Wixipecocha, tradition regarding, 
507 ; variation thereof, 539 ; de- 

Sarture of, 538; survival of his 
octrine, 538, 575; foot-prints of, 
553 ; confusion between, and Quet- 
zalcoatl, 541 ; resemblance of name 
to '• Hwui Shin, bhikshu" 540. 

Wiyana, title of Zapotec priests, 589. 

Wiyatao, a Zapotec high-priest, 538, 
540, 580, 589. 

Wo, or Japan, 165, 178, 630. 

Wog, the Mongolians, 82. 

Wolf Mountain, 646. 

Woman, position of, in India, 2; in 
Fu-sang, 433. 

Women, Cape of, 489 ; River of, 492 ; 
Buddha's command regarding, 567 ; 
conduct of Aztec priests toward, 
578; tattooing of, 345-347; sent to 
propitiate strangers, 490, 516 ; un- 
warlike tribes so-called, 213, 489; 
the Mexican Celestial, 460. 

Women, Country of, 30, 93, 106, 301, 
302, 312, 700 ; Chinese tales regard- 
ing, 213, 224, 238, 514, 529; tales 
of other nations, 98; its situation, 
487; in Japan, 178, 638, 640; in 
Kurile Islands, 245 ; near the Phil- 
ippines, 244; in the extreme east, 



105, 488 ; an island, 213, 488 ; east 
of Corea, 251 ; east of San Fran- 
cisco, 177; no room east of Japan, 
for, 110, 120; its inhabitants, 493, 
505; supposed absurdities in ac- 
count of, 300 ; explanations, 94, 
239, 489, 490, 514. 

Wood, petrified, in Japan, 183, 249. 

Wormwood, the Mexican, 508. 

Wrangling People, Chinese account 
of, 495. 

Writing, in Mexico, 34, 168, 421 ; in 
Japan, 624, 637, 640 ; not known by 
American tribes, 190 ; or by Kam- 
tchatkans, 34. 

Wv, a division of China, 165, 627, 
637, 647. 

Wu-KAo Mountain, 653. 

Wu-KO Mountain, 182. 

Wu-Ti, emperors so named, 440, 519, 
630. 

Wu-WANG, an emperor, 165. 

Wylie, Mr., his opinion, 240. 

X 

X, sound of, 540. 

Xi, pronunciation of, 407; meaning, 

376, 378 ; abbreviations of, 377, 
^378. _ 
Xicolli, a kind of fringe, 580. 
Xieoteneatl, meeting with Cortez, 428. 
Xihnitl, meanings of, 376, 377, 417; 

abbreviations of, 377. 
Xincas, of Guatemala, 366. 
* Xiuhtototl, a Mexican bird, 616. 
Xochicalco, 598, 606. 
Xochitl, Aztec word for flowers, 508. 
Xolotl, a Mexican god, 237. 
Xue-Chimzapaque, a name of Bochica, 

561. 



Y, the author of the Shan Hai King, 
673, 674. 

Y-CHi, or Y-Ki, title of king of Fu- 
sang, 27, 41. 

Y King, or Book of Changes, 672. 

Yakut language, 6. 

Yang-kiang, a Chinese author. 226. 

Yang-ko, the Luminous Valley, 48, 
226. 

Yang-tsz' River, 206. 645, 646. 

Yao, an emperor, 659 ; his burial- 
place, 657. 

Yao Mountain, 667; people, 662,666. 

Yaqui or Yaquimi, a river, 427. 

Tchcafetl, or " Cotton-stone," 532. 

Y'ear, beginning of, in Mexico, 500 ; in 



7! 



INDEX. 



China, 499; length of, 143, 434, 

475 ; designations of, 470, 
Yebi-kadzoura, name of the vine, 42. 
Yeh-yao-kiun-ti Mountain, 666. 
Yellow Emperor, the, 668. 
Yellow-jawed fish, 645. 
Yellow Kiver, arrival at, 220. 
Yen Mountain, 655. 
Y^EN-KOUEN, or Burning Mountain, 

530. 
Yen-lung, ancestor of Japanese, 663. 
Yenisei River, Great Han, near, 247. 
Yeso. See Jesso. 
YiH, meaning of, 410. 
YiH-KAO Mountain and River, 648.. 
YiH-TAO, definition of, 516. 
Yin Mountain and River, 651. 
YiN-KiAH, an emperor, 659. 
YiNG Country, 664. 
YiNG Dragon, 667. 
YiNG-HWAN-cHi-LiOH, a book, 242. 
Yit-k'i, title of king of Fu-sang, 41. 
Yiu, definition of, 444, 447. 
Yiu Sea, 653. 
Yiu, or gulls, 660. 
Yiu-i, adventures of, 665. 
Yiu-Yiu, a species of animal, 650. 
Yiu-t'an-hwa, " a cloud of blossoms," 

401. 
Yoh Mountain, 645, 646. 
Yohual Nejxmtla, or midnight, 476. 
Yopaa, edifices at, 537; pontiff of, 

538. 
Young, Dr., approval of, 67. 
Yu. Shan Hai King, attributed to, 

670-676. 
Yu, an emperor, 643, 658. 
Yij Marsh, 648, 655. 
Yu-CHE, a Tartarian tribe, 25, 187, 

188. 
Yu KiE, 222, interrogated Hwui 

ShXn. 222, 237, 519; his stories to 

the court, 224, 520, 524; failed to 

understand Hwui ShXn, 448, 521, 

525. 709. 
Yu Kill Clum, of Corean embassy, 

401. 
Yu-KiNG and Yu-kwoh, gods, 665. 
Y(j-NG0 Mountain, 649. 
Yu Pen-ki, "The History of Yu," 

675. 
Yu-SHi's Concubine, 660. 
Yu-to-lo-sexg, a Buddhist robe, 553. 
Yucatan, civilization of, 97, 622; 

monuments of, 56, 61, 598, 605; 



figures of Buddha in, 72; ele- 
phant's trunk, 607 ; crosses, 550 ; 
traditions in, 541, 556, 558; wor- 
ship of dead, 468 ; calendar, 501 ; 
mirrors, 522 ; peaceable nature of 
its people, 420; details of civiliza- 
tion, 434, 463, 616, 620. 

Yuen, an astronomer, 667; River, 
650. 

Yuen-kien-lui-han, an encyclopaedia, 
64, 86, 215, 246. 

Yuen-yang, a bird, 655. 

Yung River, 665. 

Yung-yung, description of, 644. 

Yztacchyatl, a plant, 509. 



Zacapa, a town, 77, 588. 

Zacatecas, a town, 366, 588. 

Zacatepec, meaning of, 587. 

Zacatlan, meaning of, 587. 

Zacatula, a province, 432, 491, 588. 

Zaehilla, explorations at, 72. 

Zachita, contains name Sakya, 77. 

Zacoalco, a town, 588. 

Zambos, or monkeys, 497. 

Zamna, a culture-hero, 556, 558, 559. 

Zapotecapan, disciples of Quetzalcoatl, 
in, 539, 543 ; arrival of Wixipecocha 
at, 538 ; Toltec civilization of, 575 ; 
feast of dead in, 591; priests of, 
540, 580, 581. 

Zayi, elephant's trunk at, 201, 607. 

Zeltschrift fiir Allgemeine Erdkunde, 
9 15. 

Zeno Brothers, errors of, 454. 

Zeolites, in Alaska, 356. 

Zeus, explanation by, 678. 

Zig-zag folding of manuscripts, 618. 

Zin-gu Kwo-gu, a Japanese empress, 
626, 632. 

Zin-mu, expedition of, 679. 

Zodiac, Chinese, 145, 523 ; of Tartars, 
144, 148 ; of Aztecs, 149 ; names of 
signs repeated in those of Mexican 
months, 143 ; signs represented by 
heads, 146 ; of animals not confined 
to temperate regions, 149; lunar 
changed into solar, 152. 

Zume. See Tume. 

Zuhe. See Bochica. 

Zumarraga de, use of name Mexico 
by, 371. 

Zunis, albinos among, 506. 



THE END. 






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